tips and secrets of the GQF 1502 sportsman...

[cmom]

Quote:
I don't use bleach or anything harsh in my styrofoam incubators. I clean them with good soap and hot water and if need be a good brush and get it as clean as I can. I do usually put either foil or paper towel in the bottoms to make clean up easier. If I don't I just wash them out well.

Foil in the bottom.

 

[duluthralphie]

I use 1ounce of Bleach to one gallon of water in my foam ones. It does not seem to harm them. I plug the vent holes with q-tips to plug them. Then I just let them sit for 10-15 minutes. They are white and clean and most importantly to me sterile when I am done.

After attending NPIP school and gotten my hatchery License I have become a sterilization freak. I sterilize everything. Once the eggs are sterilized I even wear latex gloves to touch them. So take my OCD on hatching with a grain of salt.

I actually do not have OCD, but my wife accuses me of it when it comes to eggs and hatching.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

I don't use bleach or anything harsh in my styrofoam incubators. I clean them with good soap and hot water and if need be a good brush and get it as clean as I can. I do usually put either foil or paper towel in the bottoms to make clean up easier. If I don't I just wash them out well. Foil in the bottom.

I use the 1588 as a hatchet & by the time the last few eggs are waiting to hatch the water in the bottom really stinks. I clean it out between hatchlings really well. I see that you use the shelf liner to catch debris & make clean up easier. Will that interfere with the humidity??

 

[OHfarmerswife]

I use 1ounce of Bleach to one gallon of water in my foam ones. It does not seem to harm them. I plug the vent holes with q-tips to plug them. Then I just let them sit for 10-15 minutes.   They are white and clean and most importantly to me sterile when I am done.

After attending NPIP school and gotten my hatchery License I have become a sterilization freak.   I sterilize everything.  Once the eggs are sterilized I even wear latex gloves to touch them.  So take my OCD on hatching with a grain of salt.



I actually do not have OCD, but my wife accuses me of it when it comes to eggs and hatching.

I have not used bleach as the opine should sterilize too but I can certainly try the bleach solution.
The water in the bottom gets stinky before the total hatch is complete. This hatch I left the chicks in for 24 hrs before removing them to the brooder but several hatched after that. If I use the rubberized shelf line over the plastic tray or on top of the worde will that interfere with the humidity??

 

[duluthralphie]

I use to have troubles with a smell in the foam ones. I use them as hatchers. It is the one thing my DW did compliment me on, is they no longer smell after 4-5 days.

I agree soap and water should sterilize. The USDA vet that came out here was insistent on using bleach at the 1oz to 1 gallon rate. That and spray Lysol so that is what I use. I asked about soap and water and she said " No, bleach is better"

So no idea why, I just do what I am told, sort of like when my DW tells me to do something, I am just trained to isten to women and never question I guess....sigh..

 

[stryker]

I have not used bleach as the opine should sterilize too but I can certainly try the bleach solution.
The water in the bottom gets stinky before the total hatch is complete. This hatch I left the chicks in for 24 hrs before removing them to the brooder but several hatched after that. If I use the rubberized shelf line over the plastic tray or on top of the worde will that interfere with the humidity??

Have you tried copper pieces or pennies in the water? I started doing that and it helped lots.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Have you tried copper pieces or pennies in the water? I started doing that and it helped lots. 

Thx Stryker I will give it a try

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I punched holes on each side just under the ridge the top sits on.

 

[cmom]

I use to have troubles with a smell in the foam ones. I use them as hatchers. It is the one thing my DW did compliment me on, is they no longer smell after 4-5 days.

I agree soap and water should sterilize. The USDA vet that came out here was insistent on using bleach at the 1oz to 1 gallon rate. That and spray Lysol so that is what I use. I asked about soap and water and she said " No, bleach is better"

So no idea why, I just do what I am told, sort of like when my DW tells me to do something, I am just trained to isten to women and never question I guess....sigh..

I'll stick with good soap and water and a good brush. A broody doesn't sterilize her nest box and she is in and out of it I'm sure there are more germs in a broody's nest. My husband is always right so I just agree "yes dear".

 

[duluthralphie]

I'll stick with good soap and water and a good brush. A broody doesn't sterilize her nest box and she is in and out of it I'm sure there are more germs in a broody's nest. My husband is always right so I just agree "yes dear".

LOL as is my wife... I use to not disinfect, and I would not even wash the eggs if they went under a broody. But as they explained at NPIP school, and I cannot find fault with their logic, as much as I want too.

An incubator is a different foreign environment to under a chicken. Also a good hatch rate under a chicken is less than an incubator does too. How many times do we hear she sat for 21 plus days and not one chick hatched?

Why risk bacteria when you don't have to. Keep the incubator sterile and everything that goes in it sterile. They had many studies showing disinfecting the eggs in bleach and 115 degree water makes no difference on hatchability. The fertility of the egg is not affected until the core of the egg reaches 117 degrees. A quick wash in 115 degree water will not raise the core temp a degree even. I am going to try to hatch differently next year so I can actually sterilize between each hatch. Of course, that will mean I need at least one or maybe 2 new incubators...But do not mention that to my DW....I want to surprise her with that one......