How to Get Better Hatches From Your Incubator – Audio Edition

Now, let's talk about some of the external factors that can affect your hatches.

Where you keep your incubator can make a big difference.

Back when I was first getting started, I lived in Florida, and I grew up in an old wooden frame house, and there was no such thing as air conditioning, and you were definitely at the mercy of the outside temperatures and the outside humidity.

But if you can, if you can put your incubator – in a location that has a constant temperature a room in your home if you've got one you can dedicate to to running an incubator is good i know several folks and and this was even goes back into the last century they would recommend putting incubators in your basement that's not something we have here in florida with our sandy soils and high water tables that that would uh It might be a good place to keep ducks, but I don't think it would be a good place to keep incubators.

But a constant temperature goes a long way because some incubators are insulated well, some are not insulated well at all.

And we'll talk about those in a minute.

But as to the location, you want it... draft free because that can mess around with the temperature of your incubator and you also want it in a location where it's not getting hit by direct sunlight because you would be amazed at how fast that can pop up your incubator temperature some other things that can impact your incubator I know when I was young and first getting started I was a let's just say a frequent peeker just to make sure things were all right.

And with those little galvanized metal incubators, every time you opened it, you just lost humidity and temperatures and it took a long, long time to recover that.

So don't be peeping inside.

If you're one of those folks, get an incubator that has one of those big clear plexiglass doors on the front and you can see inside very, very well.

Another thing that will impact your hatches is the fertility of your eggs.

So you want to make sure your birds are fertile.

Let's face it, with older birds, we have fertility issues.

With birds that are overweight, there's fertility issues.

And also, what you're feeding those birds.

You want a really good level of nutrition in your feed.

because that's going to give you a good level of nutrition in the eggs to ensure that you can grow a good-sized chick and hatch a good-sized chick, and that chick will get off to a good start to begin with.

Some folks sanitize their eggs.

I was not one to do that a lot unless I had some eggs that were very, very dirty.

I didn't use sanitizing sprays, but there are some sprays out there on the market.

I know some folks that use a product called Tektrol.

I have used it.

I got the one in the aerosol can, so I could just spray it over the top of the eggs and slide the eggs in the incubator and go from there.

I know some folks even add bleach to the water tray or pan in their incubator.

I tried that one time.

Now, let's talk about some of the external factors that can affect your hatches.

Where you keep your incubator can make a big difference.

Back when I was first getting started, I lived in Florida, and I grew up in an old wooden frame house, and there was no such thing as air conditioning, and you were definitely at the mercy of the outside temperatures and the outside humidity.

But if you can, if you can put your incubator – in a location that has a constant temperature a room in your home if you've got one you can dedicate to to running an incubator is good i know several folks and and this was even goes back into the last century they would recommend putting incubators in your basement that's not something we have here in florida with our sandy soils and high water tables that that would uh It might be a good place to keep ducks, but I don't think it would be a good place to keep incubators.

But a constant temperature goes a long way because some incubators are insulated well, some are not insulated well at all.

And we'll talk about those in a minute.

But as to the location, you want it... draft free because that can mess around with the temperature of your incubator and you also want it in a location where it's not getting hit by direct sunlight because you would be amazed at how fast that can pop up your incubator temperature some other things that can impact your incubator I know when I was young and first getting started I was a let's just say a frequent peeker just to make sure things were all right.

And with those little galvanized metal incubators, every time you opened it, you just lost humidity and temperatures and it took a long, long time to recover that.

So don't be peeping inside.

If you're one of those folks, get an incubator that has one of those big clear plexiglass doors on the front and you can see inside very, very well.

Another thing that will impact your hatches is the fertility of your eggs.

So you want to make sure your birds are fertile.

Let's face it, with older birds, we have fertility issues.

With birds that are overweight, there's fertility issues.

And also, what you're feeding those birds.

You want a really good level of nutrition in your feed.

because that's going to give you a good level of nutrition in the eggs to ensure that you can grow a good-sized chick and hatch a good-sized chick, and that chick will get off to a good start to begin with.

Some folks sanitize their eggs.

I was not one to do that a lot unless I had some eggs that were very, very dirty.

I didn't use sanitizing sprays, but there are some sprays out there on the market.

I know some folks that use a product called Tektrol.

I have used it.

I got the one in the aerosol can, so I could just spray it over the top of the eggs and slide the eggs in the incubator and go from there.

I know some folks even add bleach to the water tray or pan in their incubator.

I tried that one time.