tips and secrets of the GQF 1502 sportsman...

[ApiaryandAviary]

I tossed out my water wicks after first use not knowing replacement cost. Is there anything that can be safely used instead?

 

[chicknfishn]

You can use sponges.

 

[chicknfishn]

Does anyone know if you can stack a Gqf cabinet and hatcher. Or would it be too much weight for the bottom unit to double stack them.

 

[stricklandquail]

Does anyone know if you can stack a Gqf cabinet and hatcher. Or would it be too much weight for the bottom unit to double stack them.

Sure, at our quail farm, we stack two sportmans one on top of another, so that would be no problem at all

 

[Sikmsam]

For those using the sportsman 1500 series hatchers and incubators...
My questions is these:
How well do they hold up to power outages? Do they have a memory where they return to the last setting or do they completely shut down? Do they have to me manually reset after losing power? Before I buy I would like to know. Thanks.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

There is a computer inside the workings and mine comes back on at what I had set on.

 

[STxChickenman]

I just finished reading all 39 pages of information on the Sportsman 1502 Tips and Tricks and want to thank all of the contributors.....great information.

Now...I have to put in my two cents to see if I can contribute also.

I believe that the 1 oz. of liquid chlorine in 1 gallon of water recommended for cleaning the eggs prior to moving into hatching mode (days 18-21) is a very mild and probably safe solution so as not to harm the chicks. I just wanted to mention something that I find peculiar regarding the recommendation of this weak solution for the disinfection of the incubator after you are finished incubating and hatching. (If you have an incubator going non-stop this may not be a good idea because of chlorine fumes and potential harm to the chicks).

In the hospital environment a 10% solution of chlorine (1:10 where one part is chlorine and the other 9 parts are water) is recommended with great results to disinfect countertops, bed hardware, floors, walls etc. for appropriate infection control. (It is not absolutely mandatory that this solution be used by hospitals as there are a number of commercially available products that exist for hospitals to use in place of the 10% chorine solution for effective infection control that do not smell as strong). A very cost effective way of disinfection surfaces is to use this 10% chlorine solution with the caveat that it will stink of chlorine fumes for a while due to the stronger concentration being used. But for a very good disinfection of the cabinet I plan on using a 10% chlorine solution between incubations/hatching.

Thanks to this thread I will be hatching away from the incubator and in another cabinet or styrofoam cooler that I plan on putting together. This recommendation of separating the two processes makes total sense and the chicks that come out of the process should be much healthier.

I plan on getting a Sportsman 1502 very soon and will be disinfecting the incubator with this 10% concentration of chlorinated water and allowing it to sit and air out for a couple of days before hatching more eggs.

The 0.78% chlorine solution (1 ounce of liquid chlorine to one gallon of water) is probably sufficient to keep the eggs clean and sounds safe for the chicks but for disinfecting the cabinet I believe that it is just way too weak of a chlorine solution to kill off all bacteria that might exist in there to effectively accomplish disinfection.

Okay...maybe that was more like three cents rather than two.

 

[STxChickenman]

I add that the one part chorine that I mention in the previous post is chlorine in the form of Clorox liquid or equivalent with nine parts of water.

 

[HatchCraft]

You might look at Tex-Trol disinfectant. It's a commonly used cleaner/disinfectant for cleaning hatching eggs and incubators. Nothing wrong with chlorine, other than it is corrosive to metals.

 

[STxChickenman]

Great point and thanks for the recommendation. If I end up deciding on using a 1:10 bleach solution I will let it sit on the surfaces for a few minutes to kill off bacteria and then rinse each surface with clean water. Thanks again for bringing up the point that chlorine is very corrosive to metals....a good rinse down after using the chlorine solution is vital.