Which Incubator to buy?

[brandy00]

bummer have to tryed misting the walls of the bator with a spray bottle?

Not yet, I've been rushing in and out all day. I think I will try that when I get back home and have time to find a spray bottle lol

 

[winteree]

Not yet, I've been rushing in and out all day. I think I will try that when I get back home and have time to find a spray bottle lol

lol'si heard it help with humdity and if the bator is styrofoam you don't have to open the bator everytime you mist.

 

[TattooedMama]

You weren't kidding about trying to keep the humidity up in the Brinsea! I locked down this morning and have had to open the incubator 4 times to wet sponges

that's with both reservoirs full. The humidity in the room is 40% so I don't know why it would dry out so fast. I really didn't want to buy the humidity pump and have to plug in another cord! The temp does stabilize really quickly after putting the lid back on, but I really don't have time to sit on top of the incubator and monitor the humidity. I don't even have this problem in my styrofoam bators. Ugh.

Do you only have the 3 eggs in it? Mine went into lockdown last night and I'm already really annoyed. I have heard it is much easier to keep the humidity up with a full bator and I certainly hope so because with my 8, theres not much room for any type of "tray" for water. I have so far gotten the humidity to about 62%. To accomplish this we cut off the top of a water bottle and used that in there with water; it still wasn't enough. I ended up also cutting a styrofoam egg carton to have 3 slots lengthwise and put water in each. Both reservoirs are full as well. My vent is wide open and I do not plan to close it.

On an off note, has your autoturn cradle ever made a clicking or light knocking noise? Mine did this a few times on and off over the last few days. Not happy about that at all. It's not very loud but still this is a brand new $400+ incubator, thats Bull

How are your babies? Hatching yet?

 

[claudiab]

I have the Octagon 20 with auto-turn cradle.Bought in 10-13.I am a little new to this incubating thing, don't know a whole about it. But, I followed the Brinsea directions EXACTLY. Added water to one of the water places/reservoirs in the bottom every 3 days. Till time for the eggs to hatch (well 2 days before actually) then filled up both reservoirs with water. 6 hatches later and I could not be more pleased! I have hatched 22 out of 24 for 4 batches of eggs, 15 out of 21 (I had had some of those eggs for over a month, didn't really think they would hatch anyway...they didn't) bantam cochin eggs, and have eggs in there now. The chicks hatch out over a 2 day period...don't quite understand that, but whatever. I have never actually checked the humidity levels. I think 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' works best sometimes. So, I have repeatedly done what the directions have stated and have ended up with very good/excellent hatch rates so far. I have read that when eggs are shipped, you are lucky if you get 50% of them to hatch at all. I am sure the post-person could care less about those eggs. It is just a job with them. So much has to be sorted in the least amount of time, so you can't really blame them. Also, not everyone selling eggs is reputable. Be sure, or as sure as you can be, that you are buying from a reputable person. I have electric heat/cooling, so that is usually dryer air, but have never had an empty reservoir. Keep the incubator in the walk-in closet. Then just keep an eye on it occasionally, and watch the calendar.

About the clicking noise, my incubator is smaller, of course, but it clicked when I had the incubator placed in it wrong. Didn't even notice till the the incubator was WAY over, it's a wonder I didn't break every egg in there. Once I straightened that issue out, it has been fine. The cradle had sort of come apart on the side, put that back into place and all was well!

 

[TattooedMama]

I have the Octagon 20 with auto-turn cradle.Bought in 10-13.I am a little new to this incubating thing, don't know a whole about it. But, I followed the Brinsea directions EXACTLY. Added water to one of the water places/reservoirs in the bottom every 3 days. Till time for the eggs to hatch (well 2 days before actually) then filled up both reservoirs with water. 6 hatches later and I could not be more pleased! I have hatched 22 out of 24 for 4 batches of eggs, 15 out of 21 (I had had some of those eggs for over a month, didn't really think they would hatch anyway...they didn't) bantam cochin eggs, and have eggs in there now. The chicks hatch out over a 2 day period...don't quite understand that, but whatever. I have never actually checked the humidity levels. I think 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' works best sometimes. So, I have repeatedly done what the directions have stated and have ended up with very good/excellent hatch rates so far. I have read that when eggs are shipped, you are lucky if you get 50% of them to hatch at all. I am sure the post-person could care less about those eggs. It is just a job with them. So much has to be sorted in the least amount of time, so you can't really blame them. Also, not everyone selling eggs is reputable. Be sure, or as sure as you can be, that you are buying from a reputable person. I have electric heat/cooling, so that is usually dryer air, but have never had an empty reservoir. Keep the incubator in the walk-in closet. Then just keep an eye on it occasionally, and watch the calendar.

About the clicking noise, my incubator is smaller, of course, but it clicked when I had the incubator placed in it wrong. Didn't even notice till the the incubator was WAY over, it's a wonder I didn't break every egg in there. Once I straightened that issue out, it has been fine. The cradle had sort of come apart on the side, put that back into place and all was well!

Even when I took the incubator off the cradle it was still clicking. And it began clicking randomly, not around any time I had moved it. It was weird.

 

[claudiab]

Hmmm...I would call Brinsea about that then. I know mine makes (you can barely hear it) an itsy bitsy clicking noise, like cogs on a gear type noise. Bit, I would definitely ask them about it!

 

[Sydney Acres]

Hmmm...I would call Brinsea about that then. I know mine makes (you can barely hear it) an itsy bitsy clicking noise, like cogs on a gear type noise. Bit, I would definitely ask them about it!

I agree. Brinsea has a reputation for having great customer service and a wonderful warranty, so if there's any questions I'd call them. No reason to wonder and worry.

 

[TattooedMama]

Hmmm...I would call Brinsea about that then. I know mine makes (you can barely hear it) an itsy bitsy clicking noise, like cogs on a gear type noise. Bit, I would definitely ask them about it!

I agree. Brinsea has a reputation for having great customer service and a wonderful warranty, so if there's any questions I'd call them. No reason to wonder and worry.

I plan to call them first thing tomorrow. Thanks =)

 

[brandy00]

Do you only have the 3 eggs in it? Mine went into lockdown last night and I'm already really annoyed. I have heard it is much easier to keep the humidity up with a full bator and I certainly hope so because with my 8, theres not much room for any type of "tray" for water. I have so far gotten the humidity to about 62%. To accomplish this we cut off the top of a water bottle and used that in there with water; it still wasn't enough. I ended up also cutting a styrofoam egg carton to have 3 slots lengthwise and put water in each. Both reservoirs are full as well. My vent is wide open and I do not plan to close it. 

On an off note, has your autoturn cradle ever made a clicking or light knocking noise? Mine did this a few times on and off over the last few days. Not happy about that at all. It's not very loud but still this is a brand new $400+ incubator, thats Bull   

How are your babies? Hatching yet?

The humidity issues were awful. Yes, I only had the three and I'm hoping that was part of the problem. I could get the humidity up to 60-65% but I COULD NOT get it to stay there! It would dry up in a matter of a few hours. I tried everything. I had extra cups with water, sponges, paper towels, misted the inside... Two of the eggs failed to pip internally. They were pretty much shrink wrapped. One bantam cochin hatched with assist, but it isn't doing well and I really don't expect it to live. I did have the vent open (when the stupid thing would stay open). My schedule was just too busy to allow me to sit beside the incubator for 3 days to add water. I'm pretty annoyed with the whole situation. I'm going to fill it up with eggs from my batch due on the 9th to see if it does any better full. Hopefully so because I'm pretty disappointed right now!

 

[Sydney Acres]

The humidity issues were awful. Yes, I only had the three and I'm hoping that was part of the problem. I could get the humidity up to 60-65% but I COULD NOT get it to stay there! It would dry up in a matter of a few hours. I tried everything. I had extra cups with water, sponges, paper towels, misted the inside... Two of the eggs failed to pip internally. They were pretty much shrink wrapped. One bantam cochin hatched with assist, but it isn't doing well and I really don't expect it to live. I did have the vent open (when the stupid thing would stay open). My schedule was just too busy to allow me to sit beside the incubator for 3 days to add water. I'm pretty annoyed with the whole situation. I'm going to fill it up with eggs from my batch due on the 9th to see if it does any better full. Hopefully so because I'm pretty disappointed right now!

That's awful -- humidity issues are the most difficult.

You may already be doing this, but this may help if you've not tried it yet. Get some aquarium air hose tubing (or an old IV line, or any kind of tubing really) that you can fit onto the end of a large syringe (the 60 cc size work great, and you should be able to get them from most feed stores or veterinary offices). Thread the tubing through the vent hole (or if using a styrofoam incubator, create a new hole just for the tubing). Tie the end of the tubing to a sponge, and you can re-saturate the sponge easily from the outside, without having to open the incubator. If everything's in place, it should take about 10 seconds to do. If you get a gang-valve for the aquarium air tubing from the pet store, you might be able to branch out the tubing inside the aquarium and saturate multiple sponges at once. You'll just need to do a few test runs to know how to adjust each branch, and approximately how much water to use each time. Evaporation from the sponge, which is what creates the humidity, is determined by the surface area of the sponge, not the volume of the sponge, so multiple small sponges are much better than one large sponge. Also, different sponge qualities can be a factor. Some sponges don't fill with water as well as others, or don't distribute water throughout the sponge as well, or are so fibrous inside that they trap water in the center and not the surface, etc. There's lots of variables with sponges, so try different ones.

Also, there's a lot of other things that could help without taking up much space. How about flannel? When flannel gets wet it can really hold a lot of water, but has a huge surface area that would provide evaporation. It also absorbs water and distributes it very well. So if you fill the humidity wells on the bottom of the incubator and put a corner of flannel in the water, it will wick the water up into the fabric and increase your evaporative surface.

Or here's something really out of the box. Go to your local veterinarian and ask them to save you an empty IV bag and a used IV line, which they would likely do at no charge, or simply buy the supplies unused, which should be under $30. Empty out the IV fluids from the bag (if not already empty) and rinse well with water (if the line is used, run water through it also). (If you don't know how to disassemble all the parts and get water into the bag, ask them to show you. Different types of IV bags will be different, and some may require you to inject water in through an injection port, which isn't difficult but requires a large syringe and needle, so be sure you have what you need to fill it with water before you leave the office.) Set up your humidity wells, and/or set up your sponges, or whatever it takes to keep the humidity up, then hang the IV bag above the incubator (because it's a gravity drip) hook the IV bag (full of water, and with IV tubing attached) into the system, adjust the drip rate (there's a valve on the IV tubing that allows you to adjust how fast the fluids go through the tube) to whatever it takes to keep the wells filled, the sponges wet, whatever system you've got set up. You can have that liter of water (about 1 quart) go in over 12 hours or 72 hours or anything in between, depending on how much water is needed to keep everything wet. And it all happens without you standing over it!!! It'll probably take a few runs to figure out how fast you need the water to drip in, and it may change with the number of eggs you have in the incubator, or the number of sponges or whatever you have to create evaporative surface area, but it's a really cheap way (potentially free if you get used stuff) to create a humidity drip line. Just be really careful to keep things very clean, and maybe change out the bag and line every 1-2 hatches to avoid introducing infection into the incubator, just like with the sponges, since none of these items can be thoroughly disinfected.