TIP for adding water without openin yer 'bator.

[Davaroo]

Theres another reason to not candle. Honestly, you wont "stress" the eggs by doing it.

But in the first 5 days, the embryo is very fragile. Mishandling then could spell it's doom.

Besides what can you change by knowing? You can remove diseased eggs, but outside of that, what have you served?

 

[MrsCountryChick]

This is what I use to add water to my incubator. The straw is 11 3/4 inches long that came from a plastic collectors cup. (the kind you get filled with Pepsi or whatever soda at amusement parks or the zoo). The medicine syringe comes from the baby isle of a Dollar Store, costing only a $1.00 Just measure the warm water in a liquid measuring cup, then I slowly suck up 2 tsp at a time & add in, by removing only a vent plug. This way you can easily direct the straw where you want the water to go & inject the water into the straw thru the medicine syringe. The syringe end fits perfectly into the straw, & with no drips to drop in the vent hole onto any eggs. For me not even any change in the incubator temp at all

 

[asher]

Hmmm...wonder how to do this with a sportsman. ;-)

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

Glad I came across this thread...I'm waiting for my first eggs to try out in my new Little Giant. I'll read all the tips I can! I wondered how I was gonna get the water in there without interrupting my temp a lot. Thanks!

 

[SusanJoM]

Quote:
Well, I was just thinking about this. I just threw out 8 Silkie Eggs that hadn't done diddly squat.....Day 24. I turned the 'bator off and candled them, and ..... they'd never even gotten started. All I was thinking was that it had been rather a long waste of electricity to keep that hatcher going for no good reason.... .... shrug....

(A few days ago this probably would have thrown me for a loop. Yesterday the vet informed me that my dog's dental problem is an aggressive cancer. So it's easy to shrug off a few silkie eggs. Grief is a great leveler....)

Susan

Susan

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I have a Little Giant too (actually, 2 of them!) Without the egg turner in there, putting the water through the vent works great, but if you have the turner, there's no way it will fit. Well, possibly if you time it so the eggs are tilted, but I find the plastic tubing works perfectly.

Susan, I'm sorry about your dog

 

[SusanJoM]

Quote:
Thanks. I just adopted him in January, so I'm pretty wiped to be losing him so soon. On the other hand, he's 11 years old and has been blind for 4-5 years (from glaucoma), so maybe he doesn't mind giving up the struggle???? I sure wish I knew.

Back to chicken stuff:

The tubing just makes it soooooo easy. It's flexible, so you can just leave it coiled around inside, and plunge water through it. I pretty much put 2-3 ml into each tube every night before closing up. One through the hole in the incubator; two through the hole in the hatcher. I use a syringe just like the one MrsCountryChick posted earlier....fits perfectly into the end of the tubing....

Susan

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

I have a question since we're on the topic...I had planned on using distilled water in my incubator.
Any opinions out there on that as opposed to tap water? I thought that tap water might leave residue.

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

Anyone?

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I never thought about it. I just use tap water. Since the bottom half can be cleaned, I'm not worried about a residue.