viewing water level in incubator

[urbanagrarian]

I just started some eggs in my new Hova-bator 1588. I have an auto turner. My question is this; how can I check the water. It seems the eggs and rack obscure it. Also, how do I add water. Do I need to lift the egg rack out.

Thanks for help

 

[speckledhen]

Use a meat injector syringe with a drinking straw or tube attached and add water through the top vent holes. Get the tube below the egg turner before pushing the water in. It doesn't have to go an exact place as long as it goes in there and not all over the eggs themselves. I actually took the plastic water tray and colored the bottom of the troughs with red magic marker so I could see, with a flashlight, just where the water should go. You learn later to do it without seeing that.

 

[Dawn419]

I'm glad you asked about this, urbanagrarian, as I noticed the same thing with our Hova and auto egg turner.

I've been using a small watering can whenever I need to add more water. The spout of it is small enough to fit between the rows of the turner without getting the eggs wet. I'm just doing a trial run with some of our own eggs right now, just to get the hang of incubating and how the Bator works.

Cyn,

I had the same idea of coloring the troughs to make them easier to see/easier to fill. Will be using some aquarium tubing on the next "trial run" to add water to the bator so I don't have to keep opening the top to add water.

Dawn

 

[urbanagrarian]

dawn419,
I'm actually doing a trial run also on mine with eight eggs to get the hang of it and to test the incubator.

After reading about coloring the water tray, I was wondering if maybe next time I'll tape a colored piece of paper under it. I also thought of adding food coloring to the water, but am not sure that would be healthy for the developing embryos so I don't thik I'll try that.

 

[Dawn419]

I figured it was better to sacrifice a few of our eggs to learn from any mistakes and man-oh-man, am I glad I decided to do a few trials before spring!

The biggest OOPS! was being lazy one night and turning off the orchid lights by the surge protector button. My first waking thought hit me like a freight train...Oh NO! I forgot the bator was plugged into the same surge protector as the orchid lights.

So the eggs experienced their first power outage, thanks to me! (Me smacking myself in forehead-->

I'd thought about using food coloring too, but decided against it also.

Good luck with your hatch!

Dawn