I fired up the Incubator

[valley ranch]

I brought it in and started it up ~ I kept pretty good records on : Time, Temp and Humidity but don't remember all about keeping the Humidity exact ```

I just put in 4 eggs ~ and am taking the bator down with us on the weekends ~ the humidity would be gone over two or three days ```

 

[valley ranch]

I forgot a lot ~ if it were not for the daily log ~ I'd be up the creek ```

 

[Nyboy]

What kind of eggs ? very exciting

 

[majorcatfish]

????????

 

[valley ranch]

Just eggs from our hens ~ Rhode Island Red looking ~ sex linked chicks ~ coyote got a couple that were free ranging ~ so we have only 4 and one is a male ```

I think I mentioned ~ daughter shot the coyote ```

We could do with a few more hens ~ it's nice to have too many eggs ~ fresh eggs not cold storage ```

The Turner in the bator can hold 28 eggs ~ the eggs should be collected daily so they're not sitting in this heat ~ that way they should all hatch at once ```

If this comes out good I'll do a big batch ```

 

[valley ranch]

pictures of bator through the window ( Made this years ago ) the 1st record sheet is for this batch ~ the other is for a small batch from years ago ~ 11 hatched out of 11 ~ 100%


Eight days to lock down ```

 

[canesisters]

If you're putting them in the incubator every day, aren't your starting incubation on Those eggs???
So if you keep adding eggs.. each new addition will be a day behind the ones before???
Don't they need different conditions during the last week?? Higher humidity? Or no more turning or something?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Looks like you made it from an ice chest. Did you put a fan in there? I like your thermometer probe set in a "gel" egg, at least I think that is what it is. That should give you an accurate reading on what is going on inside the eggs where it matters.

It might be a challenge to transport that without spilling the water. I don't worry that much about keeping the humidity exact all the time, I look more at the average. What you are after is the moisture loss through the porous shell so the air cell grows big enough for the hatching chick to breathe when it internal pips. If mine runs 10 percent high a couple of days I run it about 10% low for a couple to average it out. When I spill water or get parts wet inside I don't want wet the humidity can spike until that area dries up. Surface area is what controls humidity so the more wet surface area in there the higher the humidity. I'm sure that's why the sponge is in there.

I'll comment on your counting. An egg does not have a full day's development when it is first set in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for it to have a day's worth of development. So if you are counting to 21, you should say "1" the day after you put them in. An easy way to check your counting is that the day of the week you put them in is the day of the week the 21 days is up, Monday in your case. I'm carefully not saying that's when they should hatch. In an incubator or under a broody hen it is not unusual for the eggs to hatch a full day or more early or late. There are different reasons for that. Whether in an incubator or under a broody hen mine typically starting hatching two days early. Since you counted to 22 you probably know this.

Technically lockdown should be after 18 days of development but I don't consider it to be that important to be that exact. A lot of people miscount days and do it a full day early without problems. You normally do two things at lockdown. You stop turning and remove any turner to make clean-up easier and not give the chicks a chance to get a leg, wing, or neck caught in a sharp corner of the turner. You really don't need to tun them after two weeks. Turning helps the body parts form in the right place. By two weeks body parts have formed, they just need to grow. Turning helps keep the yolk or developing chick from touching the inside of that porous shell where it could get stuck and dry out. By two weeks a membrane has formed around the chick to protect it from contact with the inside of the egg, which is a good thing because the chick is going to get so big it will touch. It does not hurt to keep turning them but it's convenient to stop turning and up the humidity at the same time.

The other part of lockdown is that you up the humidity. After external pip, that membrane that protects the chick can dry out and shrink around the chick, preventing it from hatching, if the humidity inside is too low. That's called shrink-wrap. Since the chick can pip two days early like mine normally did, three days before the 21 days is up covers you. By then they should have lost all the moisture they need to.

Since you built the incubator and got an 11 out of 11 hatch you probably knew all this, but a refresher might not hurt. Good luck.

 

[valley ranch]

Yep, an Ice chest ~ No ~ not adding eggs, this is a small test run I know pretty close when these eggs were laid ~ I keep humid around 45 -49 ~ kick it up during Lock down ~ humid spiked yesterday ``` Yes ~ on the fan ``` Keeping the temp upper 90s

What kind of bater do you have ```

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a Genesis Hovabator 1588 but sold it before I moved down here. That's one of those Styrofoam ones with a fan. Your turner looks like mine except mine had 6 rows of 7, not 4 rows.

I've given up on chickens for a couple of different reasons. Any animal you can't board ties you down and I'm in suburbia so cannot keep them the way I'd want to. I do miss them. Its not just the meat, broth, eggs, and compost, they are interesting to watch and fun to hatch.