The Moonshiner's Bootleg Incubator Reviews And Discussions

[speckledhen]

Hey, @The Moonshiner, is this what you meant about hair ties to hold the eggs steady if there are not enough in a tray to stand up? I have enough for one more tray so I need to grab another pack. This should do nicely, like little seat belts! Obviously, those are not the eggs, only a couple I got today from the girls, the brown one is from my 9 yr old Barred Rock hen who hasn't been laying for two solid years. It's her third this week and we sure need it because we use a ton of eggs here.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Hey, @The Moonshiner, is this what you meant about hair ties to hold the eggs steady if there are not enough in a tray to stand up? I have enough for one more tray so I need to grab another pack. This should do nicely, like little seat belts! Obviously, those are not the eggs, only a couple I got today from the girls, the brown one is from my 9 yr old Barred Rock hen who hasn't been laying for two solid years. It's her third this week and we sure need it because we use a ton of eggs here.
View attachment 4062010

Yes. I think when it was suggested they just used one on one end. I do mine just like your pic though.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you! I like it because it keeps the eggs from rattling against each other when they turn. Appreciate the suggestion.

 

[speckledhen]

I let both of my incubators run out of water and the humidity on both the Hovabator, on which I adjusted to match the analog hygro I had put in it, and the humidity on the MatiCoopX were within 1% of each other; one was 23% and the other was 24% so I think we're good there. I think the MatiCoop may be 1/2* higher than the readout says, but maybe not that much. That means it's no higher than 100*, readout says 99.5* so it's good to go.
After I verified the readings are good, I put about a teaspoon of water in the port on the MatiCoop and it is now reading about 28%. I have to decide if that's the way I want to go or up that to no more than 35%. I'm waiting to hear how many eggs I'm getting this week-Jamie should email me by tonight to let me know.

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, I have a question specific to the MatiCoopX 30 egg incubator and hatching. Jamie Duckworth sent 15 eggs, likely to arrive tomorrow and, of course, sit for a day or so to allow air cells to stabilize from transit. He sent eggs from three different breeding pens (BRs) and marked them as such. I'd like to keep track of them as they hatch, but I've never had to do that because my other two BR lines came in different years. I don't have to keep track now, really, but I want to see where my best male comes from in the end, just out of curiosity.
I can divide the floor space in half to keep two of the pens' eggs separate as long as the barrier is tall enough that the little heathens cannot get over it. For the last pen, I could move them to the Hovabator for the last three days. Looking for suggestions for doing that division inside the incubator. I will likely leg band them as soon as they're dry as I put them in the brooder, but the hatch is where I may lose track if they get themselves all mixed up.

 

[BobMcDuff]

Hey, I have a question specific to the MatiCoopX 30 egg incubator and hatching. Jamie Duckworth sent 15 eggs, likely to arrive tomorrow and, of course, sit for a day or so to allow air cells to stabilize from transit. He sent eggs from three different breeding pens (BRs) and marked them as such. I'd like to keep track of them as they hatch, but I've never had to do that because my other two BR lines came in different years. I don't have to keep track now, really, but I want to see where my best male comes from in the end, just out of curiosity.
I can divide the floor space in half to keep two of the pens' eggs separate as long as the barrier is tall enough that the little heathens cannot get over it. For the last pen, I could move them to the Hovabator for the last three days. Looking for suggestions for doing that division inside the incubator. I will likely leg band them as soon as they're dry as I put them in the brooder, but the hatch is where I may lose track if they get themselves all mixed up.

I actually went into lockdown today to test out my attempt at 3d printing. You can find similar to these on Etsy by searching "Maticoopx divider", or if you have a 3d printer that can do 13 inch prints I can share the files. If my computer cooperates I'm going to try and make a version that can be printed smaller and assembled. I'll share that out for anyone interested.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm sorry, Bob, you were talking about making these and since I know nothing about 3D printers, I just skimmed those posts. I think my brain is soggy from winter.

 

[speckledhen]

They're set as of this morning. I may get the dividers from Etsy because I can think of another reason those would be helpful as well as separating breeds/groups-they will keep a limited number of eggs in each section, making the bowling ball party those new hoodlums always throw from making it more difficult for others to hatch successfully. Thanks for all the advice, folks. If you want to follow the hatch, my thread is here:
Omega Rocks/

 

[BobMcDuff]

My post to go along with first use of the Maticoopx (so far, 8/8 of our own eggs, and 6/7 with shipped eggs, but the last egg is still in there and active, so thinking it may hatch as well.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/expanding-the-flock.1654930/

 

[BobMcDuff]

My post to go along with first use of the Maticoopx (so far, 8/8 of our own eggs, and 6/7 with shipped eggs, but the last egg is still in there and active, so thinking it may hatch as well.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/expanding-the-flock.1654930/

Update: Last egg hatched overnight (needed a little assistance but I believe that was my fault). If you don't count the many (expected) clears, we went 15/15, even with our first trial of shipped eggs.