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Okay, so, in other news....

Went to Tractor Supply in McDonough. No circulated air incubators, but I already told abmaddox. Got myself another still air to replace my fried 'bator, and some layer feed. The new 'bator is warming up now.

With the power loss last week, apparently a lot of my eggs are hatching late now. So I went from eggs hatching a day or two EARLY, to eggs hatching a day late. I've got a LOT due on the 16th though, because I had a guy who wanted a dozen that I lost contact with (hmm, wonder how that happened). So tomorrow, I should have a lot of chickies arriving at once!

And apparently Little Giant has re-modeled their incubators. The deep part of the styrofoam is now the BOTTOM of the incubator. The heating element is still in the top, but it's slightly more shallow now. And instead of a tiny bump to keep the incubator lid from sliding sideways off the bottom, the bottom now extends about an inch out further than the top on all sides. The top rests IN the bottom, sinking in about an inch before the styrofoam juts out to keep it from sinking in completely.

I would take a photo of all of it, and the old versus the new, but I don't want to disturb it while it's warming up. I'll get one tomorrow though.

The good news is that with the bottom part actually being deeper, I won't run into the same problem I had this morning in the one holding eggs. I had a chick hatch and climb on top of the other eggs right in the corner of the incubator. When I opened it, he almost fell out and completely down off the dresser! The deep bottom to the new incubator won't let him get that high now.
 
LTygress said:
Okay, so, in other news....


Went to Tractor Supply in McDonough. No circulated air incubators, but I already told abmaddox. Got myself another still air to replace my fried 'bator, and some layer feed. The new 'bator is warming up now.


With the power loss last week, apparently a lot of my eggs are hatching late now. So I went from eggs hatching a day or two EARLY, to eggs hatching a day late. I've got a LOT due on the 16th though, because I had a guy who wanted a dozen that I lost contact with (hmm, wonder how that happened). So tomorrow, I should have a lot of chickies arriving at once!


And apparently Little Giant has re-modeled their incubators. The deep part of the styrofoam is now the BOTTOM of the incubator. The heating element is still in the top, but it's slightly more shallow now. And instead of a tiny bump to keep the incubator lid from sliding sideways off the bottom, the bottom now extends about an inch out further than the top on all sides. The top rests IN the bottom, sinking in about an inch before the styrofoam juts out to keep it from sinking in completely.


I would take a photo of all of it, and the old versus the new, but I don't want to disturb it while it's warming up. I'll get one tomorrow though.


The good news is that with the bottom part actually being deeper, I won't run into the same problem I had this morning in the one holding eggs. I had a chick hatch and climb on top of the other eggs right in the corner of the incubator. When I opened it, he almost fell out and completely down off the dresser! The deep bottom to the new incubator won't let him get that high now.
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Suh-weet! All the changes sound great to me. The bottom of mine is way too shallow.. And, I always have a problem with ducklings (not sure abt chicks since I've yet to do those) bumping their heads on the element once they are mobile. Does it look like the change should help that too??

Btw, I'm really glad I'm not the only one who uses still air.. I was pretty sure I was!
 
And with all your hatching all the time, what do you do about humidity? I've never been too fussy about it, never measured it.. But I know some are ALL about it being perfect time, perfect level. What do you do LTygress?
 
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Right- but I meant with her putting new eggs in all the time (and you may too?).. In which case there is no "last three days" because that may be in week 2 for another egg..
 
carcar80 said:
And with all your hatching all the time, what do you do about humidity? I've never been too fussy about it, never measured it.. But I know some are ALL about it being perfect time, perfect level. What do you do LTygress?
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Technically I do the "dry hatch" thing too. But I don't really keep that much of an eye on it.

The incubator that fried was the one that all of the eggs started in. I did not add any water to it at all (so it really WAS the silkie that added water to the thermostat's circuit board...). The humidity in my ROOM stays around 30%, and I have a little ghetto humidifier to help keep it that way. I'll take a pic someday, but it's literally just two cups filled with water, and a washcloth stretched between them and "dipped" in both, and the whole thing sitting on top of the heater vent.

Anyway, that means the humidity in that incubator was probably also around 30%, which is what they say you want for a "dry" hatch anyway. But I never measured it. That incubator also has an egg turner with all 6 trays still intact.

The other incubator (which ALL of the eggs are currently stuffed in) I simply filled the water trays, and called it a day. I made sure they always had water, but otherwise never paid attention. The first few days I actually DID measure humidity in there, and it stayed around 50%, so that was good enough for me. The egg turner in this incubator only has four trays - two have been broken over time. But that's fine, because the eggs that are about to hatch ACTUALLY STAY IN THE TURNER, but they go up against the open space. That way when they hatch, the chick gets out of the egg and has the blank open space to move around. I leave eggs in the turner after accidentally doing it once (I forgot to mark dates) and found that for the very first time NONE of them pipped in the wrong place, so I left it that way. Hatch rate is MAYBE 1% higher leaving them in there. Not much of a difference, but at least no more wrong-end-pips!

As space opens up in the "wet" incubator, I'll move eggs over from the dry incubator. I don't do it on any set day. I just do it whenever there is space. Okay, NORMALLY I do it whenever there is space, because clearly there wasn't really open space when the "dry" incubator got damaged! LOL!

And no, there is no lockdown. I've always got my hands in there. I'm always candling. I'm always checking on them, and rearranging them. But my hatch rate still seems pretty darn nice compared to other people who actually DO have a lockdown period. That might be because I'm always checking on them and CANDLING them to find out where they are in terms of growing and developing, and arranging them according to THAT. Not to mention, I'm always looking for movement, internal pips, external pips, and blood vessels, in case I ever need to jump in and assist (which I have done twice just since the new year with positive results), or in case they do die before zipping out, and I need to remove them.

The way I look at humidity in the second incubator is: once I close the lid, the air will return to the condition it was in before I opened it. Just like opening the lid causes it to cool down, but closing it causes it to warm back up. The same happens with humidity. I merely make it a point not to keep it open too long - unless my dumb butt somehow makes it TOO hot!
 

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