This is one of the most important rules to live by. K.I.S.S. means Keep It Simple Stupid. There is nothing wrong with having some uptown products but we have to watch if we try to take things overboard. I know everyone wants to cut their electric bills so we insulate our incubators to save heat and this os good but DON'T close it off to much or you will loose the ventilation that is needed. Everyone want to build or make their own things wether to save money,or to build to suit your your needs and we always want our "product" to be better than store bought. This is good but keep KISS in mind when doing this.
I tink we need to listen to the ole timers and learn. Most of them have done the same dumb things that we have done. It would be better to save a batch of bitties from the mistakes of others than to loose them thru your bad experiances.
I use chorline bleach in all my waters!!!!! This is the same bleach that you use to wash clothes with. Don't use the lemon fresh scent just plain bleach. I put 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. I don't measure this I just pure it in the bottom till it looks right then add water. As we all know bleach is a strong germ killer and this would certainlly help a sick bird. I'm NOT saying that bleach is the cure all for all or any ailments but rather that this may stop something beore it starts.
WHEN SETTING YOUR EGGS IN THE INCUBATOR ALWAYS SET THEM IN THE EARLY MORING. THIS WILL MAKE THEM HATCH WITHIN A COUPLE OF HOURS OF EACH OTHER. IF THEY ARE SET AT NITE YOU'LL NOTICE THAT THEY HATCH OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. I DON'T HAVE A REASON FOR THIS BUT IT WORKS.
IF ALOT OF YOUR BIRDS YOUR ARE HATCHING WITH BAD LEGS YOUR HUMIDITY IS TO HIGH. THIS CAUSES THE BIRD TO GROW TO FAST AND TO LARGE AND THE LEGS SEEM TO BE THE ONLY THING AFFECTED. I HAVE (MY WIFE) KEPT BITTIES WITH BAD LEGS TO ADULTHOOD AND THEY WERE FINE BUT COULD NEVER BE USED AS A BREEDER. AT ONE TIME OUR HOUSE WAS LIKE A WARD FOR SICKLY OR DEFORMED BIRDS AS SHE WOULD WANT OT KEEP THEM ALL.
I build alot of incubators and one thing to remember when you build one is to allow old air out and new air in. This also goes for store bought incubators. When alot of birds hatch together this creates an abundance of carbon dioxide and a lack of oxygen which sufficates the last chicks to emerge form the egg. If you should see large amounts condensation on the top windows (stryofoam incubators) it is time to open it up to let some fresh air in. Most of time I test ANY incubator wether bought or built with some inexpensive chicken eggs.
Setting the tempature on an incubator is pretty simple as long as we go back to K.I.S.S. Everyone want their incubators at 99.5 degrees. My eyes can't see 99.5 on a mercury thermometer so I look at 100 degress. Now I don't believe in buying the most expensive thermometer that many can buy nor am I just plain cheap. However I do go to Wal-Mart and buy 5(five!!!!!) of cheapest thermometers that can be bought. Look at the whole row and pick 5 that all read the same. These are about $0.99 each. The reason to use five to set it is that some will not always read correctly and then chunck them and buy more.If you were to but only one and it was wrong you would never hatch anything and probably become discusted, because everything is right or so you think. A good friend of mine bought a round metal goose incubator for $10.00 because the other people had been given bad eggs and nothing had ever hatched. When we plugged it in and set the temp. it was right on the money. Then I put my 5 thermometers in it we found that their thermometer was wrong. My 5 read 115 degrees. At that temp alls you had to do was add potatoes and carrots and your soup would be done by the time you come home from work in the evening.
