We currently have only a small incubator because we mostly hatch quail. It holds more 20-24 quail eggs and that has been sufficient. When we use it for chicken eggs, it holds 9 or 10. When we expand our business I will build a cabinet-style incubator and a separate hatching cabinet, but we aren’t at that stage of operation, yet.
In recent years, we have had trouble with low hatch rates when we incubate quail eggs. Hatching quail is more challenging than hatching chicks because the membrane inside a quail egg is tougher than the membrane in a chicken egg. If the humidity is too low, the membrane gets tough and the quail cots (not “chicks”) can’t get through it to hatch. One outcome of the situation is low hatch numbers and an unintentional selection in favor of male cots.
I purchased a humidifier to experiment with as a way to improve our quail hatches. Today was a rainy day, which necessitated a shift in our plans. So, I seized the day and started the experiment.
The only part that took particular effort was to modify our table top incubator to allow for the humidifier tube and remote sensor to enter through a hole in the side wall. A few minutes with my drill and a spade bit took care of that issue.
The incubator and humidifier are set up on Melissa’s seed starting rack. I put a standalone thermometer/hygrometer in the incubator so I can compare its readings with he incubator and humidifier readings. There are now three ways to check the temperature and two ways to check the humidity.
Because it is raining, the humidity is already higher than the 45% level that is ideal for the eggs. I used a hair dryer to dry off the remote sensor and verified that the humidifier activated as it should. After that, I closed up the incubator and covered it with a towel. This incubator has a small heating element that is only capable of maintaining the proper temperature if there is some insulation around the case. Our basement is too cool to leave the incubator uncovered.
Tomorrow, I will check the readings. If the temperature and humidity levels look good, I’ll put some quail eggs in. This experiment has been on my to-do list for some time. So, it is nice to see it in progress.
