~Incubation Tips~

 

    The 2002 season was the best I ever had! My rough count was over 1,000 keets hatched in my two cabinet incubators. I love hatching those precious little keets and chicks. We also tried a few turkey along with quite a few quail. The guys around my place joke about hiding eggs from me as the season begins to end. One of my good friends keeps reminding me that all eggs are not only for hatching....she tells me they can be eaten. If I can just get "selling" down as well as I have "hatching", then all will be perfect. 

 

    In the beginning I started with several small Styrofoam incubators. I used both still air and forced fan. I added turners as I went along. I experimented with humidity by adding a fine mist spray bottle to my pipping process. I purchased digital thermometers to closer monitor the temperatures. Most important, I found friends online to share ideas, and problems with. There is no better teacher than experience. Until I got some behind me I took lots of information from other folks. Keep in mind, what works for one does not always work for all. I can not say that enough. With different climates and other situations you have to find your comfortable way to operate.

   Five years ago my husband thought I needed a bigger, better incubator. He located a large, used,  GQF cabinet incubator. That really got me going. I can easily have 300 eggs incubating at one time. By the next summer we had even found another used incubator and added it. At the end of the next season we purchased a  hatcher from a friend.  All three have clear doors which are a MUST so I can watch as things go along. I added 5 gallon humidity systems to both of the incubators and found it to be a wonderful time saver. 

 

 

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Styrofoam forced air incubator with digital thermometer

keets pipping

just hatched pearl keets

   egg pipped all the way around for a good hatch room temp. water for fine mist of eggs

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digital thermometer

cabinet incubator and heated brooder

cool lite candler

no need to take eggs out

cabinet incubator with acrylic door

5 gallon humidity system for large incubator

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tray with float fits inside incubator

large water system lets you go several weeks with water

 

egg flats for racks in cabinet incubator

Plastic egg flats

 they stack and wash each holds 59 eggs

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 fun 023.jpg (30045 bytes) just hatched.jpg (48055 bytes)

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larger plastic flats

Yellow holds peafowl eggs

blue holds smaller eggs

cabinet incubator

keets hatching

 

click on a thumbnail for larger views

 

I recently found this article on another method of incubation...Dry Incubation. 

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