[muntjac]

ok i introduce this " under duress "   to make it clear i dont do incubators , i dont want to do incubators , i am the guy who cannot programme the tv remote control so why the hell would i want to  mess with electric and water  :shock: .im all for the natural approach ,so if you have years of experiance using one why not help out the folks who havent ,me included :roll:  and let them know the facts not the " i know a man who  :x blurb ".all the bad times  as well as the good .why does it suit you ?, what machines are you using ? .tell us the truth about what you can do and cant. last of all .educate the uneducated with your advice and experiance  .

  i now leave the students in your care  

[Aunt Sally]

Thanks for introducing this topic Munty  

This is Van Connick's recent posting on the subject

this is what i do with my eggs....

... leave for 24 hours to get to room temp, slightly tilted with the pointy end down. in the 24 hour period tip them once the other way, still pointy end down....this stops the embryo sticking to one place inside the egg....and only use eggs that are no older than 7 days.......the older the egg the more the fertility rate lowers.......4 day old eggs are great.

i have auto incubators so i dont have to turn them, but if you have a manual one, they need turning 3 times a day......put a coss on one side of the egg so you know when they have been turned.

place eggs in dry incubator........leave for 7 days then candle.

leave for another 7 days them candle again.
candling every day is a bit excessive, as they lose heat every time the inc is opened.

on the 18th day of them being in the inc, i turn off the auto turner, and add water......so with a manual you should stop turning the eggs.

by the 20th day you should hear pipping, and 21st day you will see the beaks breaking thru the shells.

dont be tempted to open the inc at this stage....heat loss will kill the chicks.

when chicks are hatched leave them to dry and fluff up for 24 hours.

dont worry about them starving, the yolk sack will give them all the nourishment they need for this period of time.

make sure you have the brooder ready for the chicks......and go on from there.

to be honest i never use a hydrometer in the incs, but go by the fact that an egg will lose 13% of it's weight over the inc period......if the egg gains weight the humidity is too high.

as for eggs exploding........yep they sure do.......and they smell awful.....plus they are loaded with bacteria, including salmonella, so make sure, if you do have an egg that explodes the inc is thoroughly disinfected before any more eggs are put in it, plus you can become ill with it yourself, so hygene is of great importance.
best way to insure an egg wont explode is.....only leave the eggs in the inc for no more than 3 days after the expected hatching date....and never wash eggs before they go in....if they are dirty, just rub lightly with a small piece of dry, 'wet and dry ' paper......if they are washed, you wash off the protective membrane on the outside of the egg and bacteria can get in.

hope this helps a little.

[van connick]

to be honest i never use a hydrometer in the incs, but go by the fact that an egg will lose 13% of it's weight over the inc period......if the egg gains weight the humidity is too high.

can i just explain the principle of weighing the eggs....?

all eggs will lose weight, whether they are in an incubator or under a bird.

you need to make a graph.

top of graph.......no of days for incubation.....
side of graph ....egg weights

an egg will lose 13% of its weight throughout incubation process.
calculate the 13% loss and draw your line on the graph.

if the weight increases above the line, then there is too much humidity.....and egg should be moved to a dryer incubator
if the weight falls below the line, too little humidity, and so egg should be moved to wetter incubator.

once you have calculated what is happening, you need only weigh one egg each time.

any kitchen scales will do as long as they weigh in grams.

VC

[muntjac]

van .......... this is your  ... ur  " can i just explain a bit ..........bit ......you can explain it all matey and anybody else ,,, help yourself .....please    

[van connick]

lol...will do....

[Aunt Sally]

Incubator chat has been moved to the Hen House  

Click here Incubator Chat

[WR1]

If the beak has come through the hole but its just pecking thin air so what should we do because they arnt doing much now they are jst neing noisy !!




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