Accuracy for home-made incubator

greenaus · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:40 pm

silkielova wrote:

wow

u sound like a real science wizz :-D

I suppose I did enjoy science, but I don't think I'm a whiz.

I just like to experiment...which unfortunately can have disastrous results sometimes. Ok...a lot. :lol:

greenaus · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:44 pm

stuart wrote:

yep ya sure do now what ya talking bout

If you're serious, I have done a really good job of pulling the wool over your eyes. I'm scared silly about this whole Day 1 thing. :shock:

greenaus · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:50 pm

elfael wrote:

Sorry greenaus, I have no suggestions, but this is definitely a thread I'm interested in! ... Drilling extra holes in the cover reduced that by about a degree, but it's still too hot, and if changing to a lower wattage bulb doesn't fix the problem I'm dumping the @%$*&# thing ... if one of you clever people who have made your own incubators can post some step by step instructions somewhere

Don't throw away the incubator. Keep trialing different things (holes, more water, less water, whatever) and testing temperature and humidity BEFORE incubating any more eggs.

I intend to post more about how I made my incubator and stuff like that, just probably not today.

Update: I did, but my pictures I had on the post were disallowed. So, without pictures the post was worthless, so I have deleted it.

The whole thing is annoying, because I had noticed the stuff today about what pictures are allowed and decided to go in and fix the post. ie. Put links to the images. But they were already gone, so I'm not going to bother re-editing and messing around.

I then started to delete all my posts, so a few are missing. Sorry. I am a little sensitive sometimes and over-react. :oops:

greenaus · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:53 pm

silkielova wrote:

hi i was just wondering how to get the humidity up mines at 60%

More water surface area.

Another bowl?

A wet sponge?

I put the eggs in at 3:30 this morning and the humidity was sitting at about 55-60%.

Beautiful!

Before I turned them at 10:30, the humidity was 82% and rose to 85% when the lights went on.

I took the extra tub of water out (that I had placed right below one of the bulbs) and now two hours later it is sitting at 72%.

I reckon, I'll partly cover the remaining tub of water when I next rotate.

greenaus · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:57 pm

And, finally for this series of responses and updates for this morning...

I ended up upping the thermostat to 39.0

The thermostat now cuts in/out 1 degree higher.

The outdoor probe is sitting amongst the eggs and ranges between 37.4 and 38.5.

I put one of the eggs up to my eye and it felt a little warm - not really hot, but warmer than my eye socket.

I might drop the thermostat back down a degree next rotation (around 4pm) and see how the eggs feel when I get home from work tonight.

silkielova · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:29 pm

s 60% humidity good or is it supposed to be higher

jo-chicken · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:55 pm

HI there, sounds like your having some experimental fun. Can I suggest if you have a min max thermometer (not digital, mercury if possible) to put it in the incubator and see what happens over 24 hours. I have to say, your thermostat seems to vary alot, mine changes very little. It may also help if you have the incubator in a room with a very stable temp, or cover with blankets, it will probably give you a more accurate reading. Is it possible that you could test the thermostat and thermometer some how. BTW I would not worry about humidity (confuses things), and once you get the temp right then test is with a wet bulb thermometer, but for a container that size you only need a container approx 10cm x 10cm sq and all open, more for duck eggs but can worry about this when all else is settled. I do hope this post is of some use to you.

elfael · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:28 pm

Greenaus, you're right about needing a boat here at the moment, at least in some areas. I don't know how the local chooks are taking the wet weather but the ducks are having a ball :-D

Having someone else look at the incubator sounds good. I'm in Home Hill, but we travel regularly to Townsville, so maybe once the roads clear your parents and I could meet up there. Or I could just go with the large mallet option and buy a new one :-?

Jo-chicken, why do you say not to worry about the humidity? I know worrying about it complicates things, but I thought incorrect humidity affected hatch rates. Are you just saying to sort the temperature out first before messing with humidity?

Filly1977 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:50 pm

Hi guys,

Was just wondering if you could give me the instructions on building your incubator.

Also have big dramas at the moment I recently put some eggs into my incubator and all was going well then all of sudden the babies just died out of my 12 eggs I had only 7 were fertile and out of that 7 only one managed to hatch, I can't understand why this happening. When I open the eggs the babies are perfectly formed in them but are dead.

Can anyone explain to me why this is happening as I am rather upset about it all.

My little chick that did hatch is very lonely on its own and really needs a young friend
Bec

greenaus · **Posted:** Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:33 am

Filly1977 wrote:

When I open the eggs the babies are perfectly formed in them but are dead.

Can anyone explain to me why this is happening as I am rather upset about it all.

Hi Bec,

I'm no expert, but no-one else has answered and this topic with your question risks falling further and further down the list of topics.

So...

Based on what I have read in several places during recent weeks, it sounds like you have insufficient humidity during the hatch.

On day 18, we're supposed to stop turning the eggs. The only thing we're supposed to "turn" is the humidity. Turn it up! Increase it.

And, we also need to make sure the temperature is right.

I hope someone with the facts will step in now and correct anything I say that is in error. I "think" I "may' have read that the temperature can or should be lowered a little after day 18. 36.5 perhaps? But, please don't take them as true as I only "think" that's what I read.

...and it is 2:30 in the morning, so I'm tired.

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Accuracy for home-made incubator

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