New to Incubating

Chicka-Dee · **Joined:** Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:12 am **Posts:** 1194

Hi Guys

Im new to incubating so I thought I would start a new post as I would love some advice about the do's and don't's when incubating.

I have been recieving some wonderful advice off PoultryDan and a few others in the JN8-48 post but I thought it might be best to start my own post that is about my first time and for any others who are first timers that want some advice/help.

It's always a steep learning curve when you start anything new and as always there is going to be alot of trial and error but any advice to help make the "errors" part of the process less, that would be great.

I'm at day 7 now and I quickly candled and egg this morning and there were veins and a dark shadow so hopefully this is a great sign that the incubator is doing the job, but I'm still worried about maintaining a steady humidity.

The manual says a 10% variance is allowable in the humidity but I'm not sure what that means.

Would that mean if they sat 55% for the first 18 day then 60%-65% for the remainder but I'm not sure if they mean 10% as in 10% of 55% (i.e: 55 x .10 = up to 60.5%)or 10% as in up to 65%.

I've tried to keep it floating between 55% & 60%.

Opinions?

chooklover101 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 23, 2013 12:22 pm

Hi Chicka-Dee
I have also been wondering about incubators. I am personally worried I will mess something up but have been wondering the good and bad results and advice on them :-D

How are all of your chickens going???
Haven't been on for a while been busy being sick :-?

Chook lover

Drekkus · **Posted:** Wed Oct 23, 2013 5:29 pm

Chicka-Dee wrote:

Hi Guys

Im new to incubating so I thought I would start a new post as I would love some advice about the do's and don't's when incubating.

I have been recieving some wonderful advice off PoultryDan and a few others in the JN8-48 post but I thought it might be best to start my own post that is about my first time and for any others who are first timers that want some advice/help.

It's always a steep learning curve when you start anything new and as always there is going to be alot of trial and error but any advice to help make the "errors" part of the process less, that would be great.

I'm at day 7 now and I quickly candled and egg this morning and there were veins and a dark shadow so hopefully this is a great sign that the incubator is doing the job, but I'm still worried about maintaining a steady humidity.

The manual says a 10% variance is allowable in the humidity but I'm not sure what that means.

Would that mean if they sat 55% for the first 18 day then 60%-65% for the remainder but I'm not sure if they mean 10% as in 10% of 55% (i.e: 55 x .10 = up to 60.5%)or 10% as in up to 65%.

I've tried to keep it floating between 55% & 60%.

Opinions?

I try to keep mine between 55% and 60% for the 1st 18 days. It generally isn't too hard to maintain this level and its worked well enough for me . All my hatches so far have indicated the humidity has been a little lacking in the last few days and I have struggled to get it consistently to the 65%-70% I think is necessary.
Have you got yourself another thermometer and hydrometer so you can independently confirm what the incubator is reporting. I've had to adjust my temperature but that could be because its a bit of a cheap unit.

Chicka-Dee · **Joined:** Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:12 am **Posts:** 1194

chooklover101 wrote:

Hi Chicka-Dee
I have also been wondering about incubators. I am personally worried I will mess something up but have been wondering the good and bad results and advice on them :-D

How are all of your chickens going???
Haven't been on for a while been busy being sick :-?

Chook lover

Oh no

sorry to hear you've been sick Chookie,

Are you better now?

I candled a couple more eggs this arv and 1 was a no go so I took it out & the other one had a little eye, so I quickly put it back :-D

I feel the same way about messing things up.

Do you have an incubator?

Drekkus wrote:

I try to keep mine between 55% and 60% for the 1st 18 days. It generally isn't too hard to maintain this level and its worked well enough for me . All my hatches so far have indicated the humidity has been a little lacking in the last few days and I have struggled to get it consistently to the 65%-70% I think is necessary.
Have you got yourself another thermometer and hydrometer so you can independently confirm what the incubator is reporting. I've had to adjust my temperature but that could be because its a bit of a cheap unit.

No I don't have another thermometer or those humidity ones. I asked on the other post but LooLoo said I shouldn't need one.

I thinks it's doing a pretty good job but I won't know for sure until day 21.

Are you incubating eggs at the moment?

Drekkus · **Posted:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 6:08 am

Finished incubating for the time being. Too many chickens now

or is that too many roosters ?

chooklover101 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:02 pm

Chicka-Dee wrote:

chooklover101 wrote:

Hi Chicka-Dee
I have also been wondering about incubators. I am personally worried I will mess something up but have been wondering the good and bad results and advice on them :-D

How are all of your chickens going???
Haven't been on for a while been busy being sick :-?

Chook lover

Oh no

sorry to hear you've been sick Chookie,

Are you better now?

I candled a couple more eggs this arv and 1 was a no go so I took it out & the other one had a little eye, so I quickly put it back :-D

I feel the same way about messing things up.

Do you have an incubator?

Drekkus wrote:

I try to keep mine between 55% and 60% for the 1st 18 days. It generally isn't too hard to maintain this level and its worked well enough for me . All my hatches so far have indicated the humidity has been a little lacking in the last few days and I have struggled to get it consistently to the 65%-70% I think is necessary.
Have you got yourself another thermometer and hydrometer so you can independently confirm what the incubator is reporting. I've had to adjust my temperature but that could be because its a bit of a cheap unit.

No I don't have another thermometer or those humidity ones. I asked on the other post but LooLoo said I shouldn't need one.

I thinks it's doing a pretty good job but I won't know for sure until day 21.

Are you incubating eggs at the moment?

Hi
Yep much better now :-D

Quick thing Chickie Dee
Where is the place you can talk off topic stuff? Can't seem to find it........ :-?

I don't have an incubator I would like to find the pros and cons of the incubator before I spend money on one.
Tell me how it goes Chickie!
Good luck!!!!!

Chicka-Dee · **Joined:** Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:12 am **Posts:** 1194

chooklover101 wrote:

Quick thing Chickie Dee
Where is the place you can talk off topic stuff? Can't seem to find it........ :-?

I don't have an incubator I would like to find the pros and cons of the incubator before I spend money on one.
Tell me how it goes Chickie!
Good luck!!!!!

Maybe the APF chatroom. conf665

me not too sure as I haven't done the chatroom thing yet. Me's a bit techmalogically challenged conf665

There's a lot of incubators on the market and each wold have a list of pros and cons so I suppose you would have to work out which one you like & then ask about the pros and cons of it to work out if the cons outweigh the pros.

I will let you know how it goes with this one and I will try and list some pros and cons about it once I have been through the whole process in full.

But for right now I would say the biggest con is not having any data on how much water to put into the chambers to create a certain level of humidity. I understand why that data is not available as each location has varying levels of humidity, depending on where you are geographically located, but that's the beauty of a forum.

Maybe someone in Brisbane can help another Brisbanite as the humidity & temperatures don't fluctuate that widely between one side of town to another so a variance/range can be used. Like I said it all depends on where you are located.

Even you and me, me in Bris & you at Sunny Coast. The humidity & Temps don't vary wildly so hopefully you could use what I write about this one if you end up going for a similar unit.

Thanks for the luck, I think I will need it [smilie=a_goodjobson.gif]

Drekkus · **Posted:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:26 pm

Quote:

But for right now I would say the biggest con is not having any data on how much water to put into the chambers to create a certain level of humidity. I understand why that data is not available as each location has varying levels of humidity, depending on where you are geographically located, but that's the beauty of a forum.

Thats why I did some test runs first and why I added some adjustable holes to give greater control. In theory you use one channel for the 1st 18 days and then 2 for the last 3. I don't know how your incubator is setup but filling those channels and seeing how much water was in them is a challenge on mine. Over fill them so they over flow will stuff up your humidity. So I don't and just fill up the area around the channels. Less risky that way because if you do over fill the water runs out of the air holes in the base rather than increase the surface area by overflowing into the channels.

Chicka-Dee · **Joined:** Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:12 am **Posts:** 1194

Drekkus wrote:

In theory you use one channel for the 1st 18 days and then 2 for the last 3.

Interesting theory.

Drekkus wrote:

I don't know how your incubator is setup but filling those channels and seeing how much water was in them is a challenge on mine. Over fill them so they over flow will stuff up your humidity. So I don't and just fill up the area around the channels. Less risky that way because if you do over fill the water runs out of the air holes in the base rather than increase the surface area by overflowing into the channels.

I have only been filling the channels as I have created straw with a Funnel at the top to go through the hole in the top as I didn't want to open the lid too much. :lol:

I have been sticking bandaids over the two vent holes to try and keep the humidity more stable but if I cover up both of holes the humidity sky rockets, which might be a good plan for days 18+, but not at the moment.

Lots of tweaking going on every day, that's for sure

Drekkus · **Posted:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 9:15 pm

Chicka-Dee wrote:

Drekkus wrote:

In theory you use one channel for the 1st 18 days and then 2 for the last 3.

Interesting theory.

Drekkus wrote:

I don't know how your incubator is setup but filling those channels and seeing how much water was in them is a challenge on mine. Over fill them so they over flow will stuff up your humidity. So I don't and just fill up the area around the channels. Less risky that way because if you do over fill the water runs out of the air holes in the base rather than increase the surface area by overflowing into the channels.

I have only been filling the channels as I have created straw with a Funnel at the top to go through the hole in the top as I didn't want to open the lid too much. :lol:

I have been sticking bandaids over the two vent holes to try and keep the humidity more stable but if I cover up both of holes the humidity sky rockets, which might be a good plan for days 18+, but not at the moment.

Lots of tweaking going on every day, that's for sure

I've read its not a good idea to cover the vent holes. Something about reducing the air flow being bad.
As for filling the channels , I put a tube in the side and used a syringe but again its hard to see just how much water you have put in. I did try removing some of the egg trays and it did help but even then I still needed to shine a light down to see. In the end I just fill it through the front cover I made. I still have the very centre egg tray out ( reduces it from 56 eggs to 48) and I still need to shine a light. I am toying with the idea of a clear plastic cut out right at the bottom so I can see the water level

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