Trying again with my Old Drawer bator - 6 Babies! *PICS*

[MichiganWoods]

This time with my own eggs. I don't have to worry about how the post office handled them, or how old they are before getting put in. I've added eggs of mine that are no older than 3 days since having been layed. The EE eggs are only pastel blues and pastel greens with no hint of brown. There is one double yolker in that lot. I also added 3 of my Rhode Island White x EE cross eggs.

They will stop being turned on the 27th. Due date is Saturday, May 30th.

I made some slight modifications to the incubator (and will post pics in a few days) on the off chance the fault with the prior hatch was with it. I've added more vent holes. There are now 4 on the lid, and 2 extra holes on 3 of the sides. I also elevated the platform on the inside so that the fan isn't blowing directly on the eggs. Instead, it's blowing through two plastic baskets which are turned upside down, on top of which my rubbermaid lid platform is resting. I've left a gap along the far side of the platform from the wall so that the fan can circulate the air all the way through and around for a more even heat.

I am, for once, not going to candle the eggs. I will leave the incubator absolutely closed until I have to take them off the turner.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Must have missed the thread... how did the others go?

 

[MichiganWoods]

2 out of 6 hatched and 1 had a severely crooked neck. I ended up having to cull the poor thing. The 1 that made it is perfect though so I'm not really sure what happened.

 

[Fudgie]

Good luck on your hatch!

 

[MichiganWoods]

Thanks! I'll be sure to post updates when I (hopefully) have some pips!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Hmmm... sounds like humidity issues.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Too high or too low? The air pockets seemed a good size with them when they were candled on Day 18.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Thats hard to say. I know that I was having bad hatches due to humidity being TOO high. I had become obsessed with having higher humidity because I thought it was too low. Well after ruining 3 or 4 hatches with 70 to 80% humidity, I decided to leave well enough alone. I've now had two hatches in the 90% area where humidity was between 45% to 57% from day one to day 21. The first hatch was 7 out of 8, and the second was 4 out of 5. Humidity never got above 57% and they hatched in the same incubator as the developing ones. I've got another 5 that started hatching last night.

I dont increase, I dont decrease, I just let it run.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Hmm. Without anything in there I get about 25% humidity. I added a wet sponge to my dish this morning which raised the humidity to about 40%-45%. I guess I'll let it go with that and see how it does.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Here lately, running the bator DRY I'm getting 37% humidity, which is quite ODD for Texas as we are usually in droughts this time of year.