Texas

[Little Wing]

What a great job!!

Thanks! Tell DH not to pick it apart too bad. I'm not at his level.

 

[CatKai]

What should the humidity be during incubation? I had an egg turner in the incubator, so they were being turned constantly until lockdown.

What does everyone do on this? I don't even check it day 1-18 then go to 55-60 at lock down on day19 and have great hatches.

 

[CatKai]

Great idea!

Just a side note...im using some old dressers or bed side tables as nesting boxes and the girls love them! They were missing some drawers so were pretty much useless otherwise!

 

[CatKai]

I just got the new bator working. Just need to stain it. I had everything I needed on hand. The glass in the door is a piece of 3/8" thick tempered glass that I honestly can't remember where I got it from, The fan and heater is a hand dryer (like the ones in public bathrooms).that I had, (imagine that) the plywood was leftovers, the thermostat is a water heater thermostat that I had in an old cooler-bator. I didn't have to go to Home Depot for anything! It's holding temps perfectly without any insulation. It holds 138 eggs.

I went ahead and set some eggs tonight without staining it cause I couldn't wait. It probably won't ever get stained.

 

[yinepu]

It's freezer camp day for the meaties. This is our fist time. Send us kind thoughts. Hope we don't come out of this experience as vegetarians....

you should be fine..

once you get the hang of it you can do it in your sleep

 

[Imprfctme]

It's freezer camp day for the meaties. This is our fist time. Send us kind thoughts. Hope we don't come out of this experience as vegetarians....

Good luck! Write down what you can, I'd love to hear your experience.

 

[yinepu]

I just got the new bator working. Just need to stain it. I had everything I needed on hand. The glass in the door is a piece of 3/8" thick tempered glass that I honestly can't remember where I got it from, The fan and heater is a hand dryer (like the ones in public bathrooms).that I had, (imagine that) the plywood was leftovers, the thermostat is a water heater thermostat that I had in an old cooler-bator. I didn't have to go to Home Depot for anything! It's holding temps perfectly without any insulation. It holds 138 eggs.

I went ahead and set some eggs tonight without staining it cause I couldn't wait. It probably won't ever get stained.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
People go over into the incubation thread.. or read the craptastic instructions that come with their incubators.. and get confused by all the conflicting info..

when in reality the eggs will tell them exactly what they need to know... all they have to do is observe



I check air cells.. or weights.. then monitor and see what the eggs need... it's just that simple


edited because i have a cat helping... tails in front of monitors don't help as much as they think

 

[Little Wing]

What does everyone do on this? I don't even check it day 1-18 then go to 55-60 at lock down on day19 and have great hatches.

I agree. I don't worry about humidity until lockdown. Here on the coast you don't need to, IMO. I think folks up north have to worry more about that.
Heck, I don't even candle, usually. I set it and forget it (literally sometimes) .

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
once you know your bator.. and how it reacts with your environment year round (basically once you find out what works for you).. you don't need to candle unless you're working with waterfowl, parrots or turkeys..
then mainly it's to check for internal pips


but with shipped eggs you have a lot of unknowns.. thickness of shell.. porosity .. and so on.. so I make sure I candle them to check that .. plus to look for hairline cracks!

with everyone though (especially newbies to incubation) I always suggest monitoring eggs.. it's the best way for them to learn how things work for them


heck.. 9 times out of 10 I forget when hatch date is.. just had chicks hatching out the other day when I went to turn the darn things.. plus I do so many batches of stacked eggs and staggered hatches it's easy to lose track of who is hatching when