[lisa123]

hi i tried to make my own incy out of polystyrene, a light fitting and two bowls of water, a bit of tape, a glass off a photo frame. the humidity was perfect and so was the temp for a while but then it kept rising so will have to do fase two, have got to get hold of a thermostat. but it prooves that it dosnt have to cost alot.

[joyfull]

wildwitchy made her own incubator last year 

[lisa123]

what did she use and did she have a thermostat to control the temp? 

[joyfull]

not sure try pm-ing her - I'm sure she will help you - it would have been about last April/May time she made it 

[Brushcutter]

Hi there Traacyken,

Good luck with your chicks! When the time comes if you can get someone local to show you how to dispatch the unlucky fellas that would be best! Alternatively you could grow them on to eating size. Are your auto sexing eggs Legbars?

[traacyken]

hi yes 6 or 7 of the eggs are self sexing, the others are silkie xs and some other xs

[Tania]

I have just taken delivery of a Brinsea mini advance so will let you know how i get on.  I have had mixed results from the octogen 10 auto turning.  ( I have small incubators so I don't hatch too many).

Would love to know how you get on with this. I'm thinking of purchasing one and a review or three would be helpful

[oliviamaryb]

Last year I bought the cheapest kind; the Covatutto 7. I put in 7 eggs and 6 hatched - the other pipped but died (I wish I had helped it).
I followed the instructions and loved the whole thing - turning the eggs, checking the water and candling.
The more expensive ones do all that for you.

[ajkula77]

I have had a lot of success with our R-Com 20 and our own eggs or eggs bought from Ebay. Ideally though buy hatching eggs from a breeder where you can see adult stock, I 've just hatched two lots of barnevelders, both meant to be double laced but some are definitely only single!
FYI you can't hatch the rare breed eggs bought in waitrose....

[Ribbit]

Just read the latest PP mag. It has a page about home hatching, it suggests that if a chick hasn't got the strength to hatch it's way out then leave it, because it won't be a strong chick.

[lisa80]

I agree im afraid as much as you want to help the chances are they wont survive anyway.My last hatch the last 2 that hatched both had deformed legs and we also had 2 eggs that didnt hatch at all and on inspection were both fully formed chicks just not strong enough to get out

[sarah f]

i have a brinsea mini advance, fantastic incubator, i had 3 good hatches from it so far
6 out of 6, a 5 out of 6 and another 5 out of 6 chicks. ( 2 lots of silkies and one lot of seramas)
really easy to use .

[raeburg]

I have just taken delivery of a Brinsea mini advance so will let you know how i get on.  I have had mixed results from the octogen 10 auto turning.  ( I have small incubators so I don't hatch too many).

Would love to know how you get on with this. I'm thinking of purchasing one and a review or three would be helpful

the octogen hatched 6/6 and the mini advance 0/6 although there were disrupted air sacs in 2 and the other 4 didn't start at all. I now have some araucanas in and they are going well so far.

[pine]

Hi,

I'm new here and desperately hoping someone can help me out. I've made my own incubator which is beautifully warm and humid but the trouble is I can't accurately measure either the temp or humidity! I bought a digital thermometer/hygrometer off ebay which turned up today but I was convinced it was underestimating both temp and humidity so I put my greenhouse thermometer in and the 2 are rather a long way out. The greenhouse one reads 35 deg C while the new one reads 32 deg (I can easily increase the temperature in the incy to get it up to the correct level). The hygrometer's reading 51% which sounds about right yet inside it feels very moist.

I have a couple of questions I'm hoping someone can answer -

1) Does around the 50% humidity mark feel very moist when you put your hand in the incubator? (I've got 2 ramekins and a jamjar lid in there with water in them)

2) Does anybody have any suggestions for a make and model number of a thermometer/hygrometer they can vouch for as being accurate? (The reason I suspect the new thing as not being spot on is that I monitor my greenhouse very closely and the thermometer in there is always very accurate when we have ground frosts and light frosts. That doesn't automatically mean it's accurate at the other extremes I know but it's an old trusted friend.)

I have a dozen turkey eggs waiting to go in there. They were all laid between Sunday and Tuesday so are now 6-8 days old. I don't want to wait much longer before setting them so if anybody has some suggestions it would be very gratefully received!

Thanks,
Andrew

[hillfooter]

I bought a RCOM PRO so very this is automatic.  The only thing that is concerning me is the candling.  I put the incubator in the cellar as advised in the “incubating at home book by Michael Roberts, but it is quite cold down there and when I open the lid of the incubator the temperature falls like a stone.

It would be a great help if anyone could help me on the following question.

Do I have to lift the eggs out to candle or can I leave them in the incubator and just put the light on them.

Would it be a good idea to place a heat light over the incubator for the candling period as I am not going to be as quick as a professional.  

It's best to keep the incubator in a room which is as stable a temperature as possible and is warmish.  Ideally you are trying to maintain stable conditions so temperature and humidity doesn't vary widely requiring the incubator to compensate for rapid changes.

Incubate broad end upwards.  I think it's best to not disturb the eggs too much and I just open it to top up the water for the humidity.  I candle twice or three times at the most.  After 6 days (the most important time to check all eggs to remove infertile ones), 12days (to check development, not necessary to check all just sample candle), 18 days (not vital as at  this stage you probably are going to let them run to full term anyway and it's just for interest really.)  At 18 days raise the humidity by following the manufacturers recommendations.  

When I candle I lift out all the eggs on a tray and cover them  with a warm fluffy towel to minimise the heat lost.  I replace the incubator lid to maintain humidity and temperatue.  I lift out and check the eggs individually and replace them immediately under the towel so thay don't drop much in temperature.  No need to heat the eggs as they will survive short periods of temperature dips during candling, just insulate them with a cloth cover.

If you use a fine mister to raise the humidity after returning the tray to the incubator do so sparingly and don't wet the eggs.  Humidity shouldn't be too high before 18days.  Raise it in the last 2 and a half days when you should stop turning.  Don't lift the lid during hatch until half have hatched and no more frequently than once per 6 hours.  Remove chicks to a warm bucket for transfer to the brooder.  Remove empty egg shells at this time also.  Keep lid off at this time as short a time as possible as high humidity is most critical at this time .

Simple evaporation pads can be made by using kitchen paper folded into strips about 3inches wide and one end dipped into the water trough to wick up the water and evapourated from the rest of the pad in the incubator.

HF