YAY Get to hatch again . Question

[gabrielle1976]

I have a little over a dozen each of pheasent and chucker eggs Im putting in the bator this evening. the humidty is abou 37% I know remmber how hard keeping humidity up in these little giants can be. What humididty have you guys found thats best for these guys for the first weeks and any hints on uping the humidity if and when I need to. I have a jar of water in there as well as all the built in resavores of the bator filled with water and its only at 37%.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I have a little over a dozen each of pheasent and chucker eggs Im putting in the bator this evening. the humidty is abou 37% I know remmber how hard keeping humidity up in these little giants can be. What humididty have you guys found thats best for these guys for the first weeks and any hints on uping the humidity if and when I need to. I have a jar of water in there as well as all the built in resavores of the bator filled with water and its only at 37%.

Good morning Gabrielle,
I dont worry about the humidity as much at first. But as your incubation progresses, Its of bigger concern. I try to hang at around 40%, not stressing much about it till the last week. Then Its as high as I can get it. When the bator windows steam up, I got it just right! To be clear I only hatch chukar, Bobs, turkey, guinea and chickens. I dont do the pheasant....

As to your bator... you have a jar with water and the troughs full. Pinch the vents down a bit. DO NOT CLOSE COMPLETELY! I have used masking tape to close holes half off. Then add a sponge to your jar. Sticking up right as high as you can. The sponge will wick water from the jar quicker. It will also need to be filled more often...More jars\sponges = higher humidity... Good Luck, Bill.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Thank you very much. I will try that with the sponge. Now I just have to get the temp to be nice lol after about 18 hours of haveing the eggs in the temp was at 98.7 so I nudged it just a tad so it went to 100.1 so I nudged it the other way and it went to 98.7 so I nudged it and guess what 100.1 .. so if I cant get this perfect whats better just under a degree to little or just over a half a degree to high O.O

 

[Fat Daddy]

Good morning Gabrielle,

The "touchy" thermo your doing battle with is the nature of the little giant bators... once you do find the "sweet spot", they are prone to hold perfectly for weeks and then spike for unknown reasons... Some work great some cant be trusted. All have the hard to get right thermo, very small movements and let it sit to see where your at.

To answer you temp question. I would rather be just on the cool side than hot. My think'n is how sure are you your thermometer is right on the money? If its a deg and a half high, your running close to 102. My feel'n is get'n too hot will kill eggs for sure, a little cool and you could still have a late hatch... But 100.1 is doable if you trust that your thermometer is right. It sounds like you are shooting for 99.5. Your LG bator has fan in it right? If not the 100.1 is a tad low but still workable.... Good luck, Bill

 

[gabrielle1976]

Thank you Bill . Yes it has a fan so it says to keep it at 99.5 right now I have kept it at 98.9 for a bit and Im pretty happy with that. My thermo is a reptile one with humidity sense as well but IM not shure how much I trust it my old one that was much easyer to check and make shure if it was accurate bit the dust . I was wondering if I can take a normal person therm and put the tip in the jar of water inside the bator thats there for humidity and take a reading that way as water in the jar should be close to the temp of the eggs right? The inside of the bator feels warmish to me when I open it to turn but not overly hot so if there is a temp problem Im gonna guess to cool witch hopefully wont kill them while I get this figured out. Thank you

 

[Fat Daddy]

I'v did this dance with the thermometers too ... No matter how many you put in there, none will be the same it seems. I trust the old fashion glass people thermo to be the most accurate of the common, buy one anywhere type... There are graduated to a very small scale that helps with accuracy... You have a jar of water with a sponge in side. Next time you open to turn, jam a pencil in the edge of the sponge so you make a hole but the pencil never comes out. 1 1/2" deep is perfect. Now slip the glass thermo made for folks in the hole. Leave it do you can see it thru the window in 3 mins... Seeing as how these thermos require "shake'n" down, it will record your high temp as well. You now will know if you spiked and how high.... Good luck. Bill

 

[drowe005]

I use an LG incubator as well and have hatched both Pheasant and Chukar this year. I have had some problems to maintaining humidity in the LG, but have managed. Sometimes having 2/3 of the water trays full will have it at 45% humidity, and other times has it at 60%. As odd as it seems, having 3/3 full has only got me 50% humidity at most. As for the Chukars, I have had a great hatch rate (38/40 have hatched this year) with using 45% during the first three weeks, and 50%-55% for lockdown. I only had 5/15 Ringnecks hatch for me, not sure what happened with them. Good luck with your hatch!


One other thing Ive noticed with the LGs, is if you put very warm water in when you add some, but not HOT, the incubator seems to maintain a higher humidity for longer periods as well. I also will occassionally take a spray bottle and spray in a little through the vent holes in lockdown and that will bump humidity up pretty well too.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Thanks everyone. I thought that therm was being fairly relible but the bator still seems coolish I mean its warm when I open it but just barely I dont know . I dont think I have a glass one right now but Ill get one as soon as I can . A human digital put in the water in the bator says 91 so I upped the temp in the bator . Now my repto therm says 101. 9 and the human one says 92 lol this is nerve racking . I will keep tracking down therms of diffrent types and trying to see how accurate they are . Im hopeing if I can get them in a avrage between all of them the eggs will be at a surviveble 98-101. I Dont know if its just the therms or if my little LG is trying to give up the ghost , I promised my newer one to someone so that gives me an exscuse to buy another one. I found a Brinesea 20 eco for 129.00 Anyone want to pitch in and let me know if this most simple of there bators is a big enough step up from another forced air LG for like 80.00

 

[drowe005]

The air shouldn't feel too terribly warm to you when you open it. If you think about it, human skin temperature is about 98.6 degrees, so when you feel 99.5 degrees, you shouldnt be able to feel to much since there really is no temperature difference. I have never once since a thermometer that wasn't accurate before, that is unless it is digital and then you can have some discrepencies there due to batteries etc., so Im sure what your thermometer says is what the temperature is (or atleast very close)

 

[gabrielle1976]

Hmm that is a very good point. I didnt even think of that . Thank you.