Saturday afternoon, I heard the first chick chirping from inside the GQF-always an exciting time. We were getting down to the final stretch and the chicks were due to hatch on a Sunday. Still, I was happy with the progress so far. I could tell that those three were clear and had not developed at all. With the exception of the three shipped Marans eggs, every egg was filled in, dark, and seemed to have a chick in it. I also decided to candle all the eggs and see what I could see when removing them from the turner. Once I reached day 18, it was time to take the automatic egg turner out. The Marans eggs, with their darker brown shell, are always hard to candle, so I gave them a pass.Įven with several days of crazy temperature fluctuations with highs in the 80s and lows into the 30s outside overnight over the 21 day incubation period-which of course affected our indoor temperatures-the GQF stayed very consistent, even though the instructions suggest keeping it in a room with a constant temperature.
To my surprise, every egg I candled contained a developing chick. I typically like to see how the eggs are developing, so on the sixth day I candled a few. It seemed almost too easy-I kept thinking “Am I doing everything I’m supposed to?” It turns out I was doing my part and I was hoping the GQF was, too.
#Gqf incubator fan free
With the GQF automatic egg turner, I was set free from all the extra work of turning along with the feelings of guilt when I forgot to turn them-it was great!Īll I really had to do was to check and make sure there was water in the plastic tray to keep the humidity at the proper level. With my old incubators, I had to turn the eggs by hand at least three times a day for the first 18 days of incubation, a time consuming task that always made me feel guilty if I forgot. Then, on the day I placed the eggs in the incubator, I found two Old English Game Bantam eggs in one of the coops, so I added them, too, for a total of 34 eggs. I let them rest for a day before setting all the eggs. I know there is always a risk of shipped eggs not hatching since you do not know how well they traveled, but I was willing to take the chance. I also purchased 10 Blue, Black, and Splash Marans eggs online that arrived just in time. Once it reached the correct temperature, I didn’t have to touch the thermostat again-with the help of the internal fan to circulate air, the incubator held the chosen temperature throughout.įor my first use of the incubator, I chose 7 Rhode Island Red and 15 Leghorn eggs from my own flock. I plugged in both the turner and the incubator and placed the thermometer on top of the turner to keep track of the temperature and adjust if needed.
After checking to make sure that I had it set for chicken eggs, I placed the turner in the incubator with the electrical cord exiting through the provided space. The turner is capable of holding up to 41 eggs of various sizes ranging from tiny quail eggs on up to large goose eggs. It also included several useful accessories such as a plastic liner with built in water troughs, a wire floor with a easy-to-clean coating, owl clips to attach the wire floor to the plastic liner, and a thermometer.Īfter I placed the assembled liner and wire floor in the bottom of the incubator and filled the troughs with water, I was ready to position the automatic egg turner inside the incubator. The first thing I noticed was that it was made from a thicker, better quality Styrofoam than my old incubator. Once the GQF incubator with the automatic egg turner arrived, I read the directions several times and set it up accordingly.
Having used Styrofoam incubators with mixed results in the past, I wasn’t sure what to expect from GQF’s 2362E Electronic Thermostat Hova-Bator.
0 kommentar(er)
