The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: madchickenlady on March 18, 2014, 03:32:33 pm
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Hi all, I made the mistake of buying a cheap incubator, but at the time it was that or nothing as my broody had changed her mind! The instructions were almost non existent with no info on humidity control, nor could I fathom out how to do it I did have one successful hatch from six duck eggs though. I am a little wary of using it again due to the problems but wondered if running it dry would work and what that entails> Any advice please? Much as I would like a brinsea or something I don't currently have the finances so am stuck with what I have!
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I have an Rcom that has automatic humidity control Once I realised that I needed to bin the humidity pump and run it dry my hatch rates shot up. Now I increase the humidity only at pipping time using a damp J cloth placed over the eggs. It works fine for me.
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I borrowed a friends cheep :-J incubator with no instructions, setting the temp was the only control. It had two cup/troughs in the centre for water, I kept the smaller middle cup full (I used rain water collected in a 4pnt milk bottle) up until lock down then filled the 2 cup/troughs right up for hatching.
Initial 12 eggs (ebay) I dropped 1, 4 infertile/ didn't develop, 7 went onto fully develop, 6 hatched & 1 died in egg the wrong way round.
I now have 5 cockerels & 1 hen :innocent: loved every minute of incubating ;D
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Do tell more Hughesy. We have an Rcom King Suro, which has never been right. Always great fertility, rubbish hatchability. However, when we just had a standard manual incubator, our results were always really good....
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my first and favourite incy had just a temp control and fan - nothing digital/fancy.
temp was taken by a thermometer placed inside, and humidity measured by a little gauge which cost a pound, adjusting the humidity by how much water was placed in the little cup.
you don't need anything fancy you just need to know how to control temp and humidity. run it empty until you know how to control it. we just used a small cup of water then increased humidity by either adding anther cup/wet flannel before hatching.
the book - "small scale poultry farming" is ace as it has all the temps etc for different species.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Scale-Poultry-Keeping-Free-range-Production-ebook/dp/B004URMX22/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395172899&sr=8-2&keywords=small+scale+poultry+farming (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Scale-Poultry-Keeping-Free-range-Production-ebook/dp/B004URMX22/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395172899&sr=8-2&keywords=small+scale+poultry+farming)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alarm-Clock-Calendar-Thermometer-Humidity/dp/B004GNBLDM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395173070&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=poultry+humidity+meter (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alarm-Clock-Calendar-Thermometer-Humidity/dp/B004GNBLDM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395173070&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=poultry+humidity+meter)
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Do tell more Hughesy. We have an Rcom King Suro, which has never been right. Always great fertility, rubbish hatchability. However, when we just had a standard manual incubator, our results were always really good....
OK two modifications to your Suro are what I think are required. Bin the humidity pump unless you just use it to boost the humidity at the pipping stage. Secondly, find yourself a polystyrene or similar box that will fit over the whole thing and keep the incubator covered while running. I found that originally the eggs in the middle two rows were hatching ok but the outer rows were not doing so well. The Suro is very poorly insulated so needs a bit of help. It does say in the instructions somewhere that it's best to keep it in a room temp of 25C which is pretty unlikely to happen in our house!
I consistently get a hatch rate of 75 to 85% after doing the above.
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You can weigh the eggs every few days to see how much moisture they're losing and that tells you whether to increase or reduce humidity. Duck eggs like it dry anyway - they're bigger so it's harder for them to lose enough weight. I've got a fancy-pants Brinsea with humidity pump and have turned it right down (to the point where it's just at the external humidity) because the duck eggs weren't losing enough weight. I then transfer to a second incubator for hatching and that has no humidity control so I fill the channels with water. Mind you, the ducks haven't hatched yet so I shouldn't be counting them until they do!
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Stunning - thanks guys!
I have been doing some trials with various different thermometers in different positions, and had come to the conclusion that there was not an even temperature throughout the incubator. Perhaps more insulation really is all it needs. The heater would then not have to work so hard, but the fan would still be going the same, and that might even up the temperature.
Edit - Mrs Womble has just reminded me that the incubator worked perfectly when we lent it to a friend last summer, who lives in a nice warm modern house. Perhaps it just doesn't like old draughty stone buildings!!
As far as humidity goes, I know what used to work with the manual incubator (just a small pot of water in the bottom - nothing special), so I'll ditch the pump and go with that again. Here's hoping - I have a big batch of indian rubber eggs on their way to me (yes, that was a typo, but I decided just to leave it in ;D ), so :fc: :fc: :fc: .
Cheers!
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Womble that is how I figured it out. Summer hatch rates were fine but not so in the cooler months. More insulation is definitely needed. I use an upturned polystyrene box that came from a place that sells live fish. It's what they get them delivered in.
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We have exactly the same experience as Hughesy with a Suro20. It really needs to be run inside an insulated box to keep the ambient temperature above 20 degrees. The very small print in the instructions says it must be run above 20 degrees but I think 25 degrees is more like it. In the UK we ran our semi-automatic incubator dry until day 18, when we filled the water trays. In the UK the air humidity is high enough to run dry, unless you are in a modern centrally heated house when the humidity can be really low and you need to add water. The water tray is certainly needed over here though as the air is extremely dry most of the time. Both our semi auto's are from warm climates -Italy and Spain. So the instructions say to fill one water tray for incubation and two trays for hatching.
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I just checked - our bedroom, which is the warmest room in the house is currently at 16 degC. (Why anybody would want it any warmer is beyond me! ;) .)
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they will be expensive hens if you have to heat the house for them. we have thin silver insulation for our loft and im sure you could tape that around the base. have a look in bnQ. or stick the incy in the boiler cupboard?
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What's a boiler cupboard shygirl? ;D I actually have a load of fleece fabric offcuts, so I think I'm going to make a wee incubator jacket, then just put it in the warmest place I can.
Come to think of it, the warmest place we have is probably under a fluffy chicken's bum. If only I could convince a fluffy chicken or two to cooperate, this would all be so much easier! :)
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Thanks all, really helpful. I am going to try using a broody again but a proven one this time, but I feel more confident to try the incy if necessary! Thank goodness for forums! :relief:
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What's a boiler cupboard shygirl? ;D
sorry, I meant "airing" cupboard in the house (immersion tank?) what ever it is called, ours is always cosy
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Well........
Out of 24 fertile eggs set, only five ducklings hatched :( .
I ran the incubator dry or with just a small piece of damp cloth inside until day 25 (humidity consistently controlled at 40% that way), then upped the humidity to 60-65% on day 25. I wrapped the incubator loosley in a blanket to keep everything warm, as per the comments above, and ran it at 37.5 degC throughout.
The eggs that hatched, did so on day 26 (an indication things were too hot perhaps?), whereas for the ones that did not hatch, 50% had died with only a few days to go, 25% had pipped internally but not externally, and 25% had died full term, not even pipping internally.
I'm at a loss as to what to try next TBH. I'm running at about £7.00 per chick at the moment, and rapidly losing patience :'( . Any advice, lovely people of TAS? :)
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I wonder if your humidity wasn't high enough? Everything I read r.e ducks pointed to 60% in first 25 days then 80% in last 3 to prevent shrink wrapping. I hatched 5 out of 12 eggs this way, 4 were in fertile and 3 died early on in the first week but the other 5 made it right through to hatching.
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Womble it sounds exactly like my last disastrous duck hatch (posted about it a couple of weeks ago). I got 2 out of 12 out and at least three died after having internally pipped but not managing to externally pip - quicly too, they'd been peeping in the morning and had died by the evening. Last year I got six out of six cayugas hatched with low humidity and terrible hatching at high humidity so I think there's more to it than that. I reckon the stage of season has an influence too - the early eggs are thicker shelled. I'm interested to see how the eggs I've posted out have gone because they were later than my own hatch. I'm trying to hatch geese at the moment (although I think I'm down to only one possible in this week's hatch - I don't know whether that's a good thing or not) but I'm going to try another duck batch in a couple of weeks. I've been weighing assiduously and they've all been on target weight loss wise although there has been variation within the batch & the two that made it out were the only ones to have lost more weight than they needed to.
In contrast I've had a huge batch of chicks - set 21, two died part-way through but the remaining 19 all popped out with virtually no intervention. I went up to London for they day with one having hatched before I left and came back to an incubator full of 14 chicks and the remaining five having pipped. Bliss! My current conclusion is just that ducks are harder. Even the broody hens seem to find them harder.
Sorry, that's not much use, is it?