Laura Ricketts wrote:
>
>
> What do you do for humidity levels? How do you cover
> the "incubator"? Do you just set the UTH in the
> bottom of the cooler, then lay the egg crates on top?
> By deli cups, do you mean the containers you get stuff
> in a the deli counters, like potato salad? We have
> saved tons of them! Do you put anything in the bottom
> of them?
>
The UTH is stuck to a piece of tempered glass about an inch bigger in each
direction. That contraption sits on a chunk of styrofoam as a precaution in case
of water spills. I've never had any spills or condensation but I feel better
knowing it's raised an inch. The egg crate is supported by several PVC legs. I
was really ambitious a few years ago, and cut a hole in the cooler lid, and
siliconed a piece of plastic over it, thinking a window would be great. I could
just look in and see what's going on. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough light.
This 'model' I'm using now is windowless. It is important to have a dimmer
switch of some sort to control the temperature. Normal UTH temps can get to
110�F in some models. Also, in summer you'll find the temperature can get higher
on the same setting because the ambient room temperature is higher.
Each clutch of eggs has it's own deli-cup. I've only used damp peat moss (trying
a few with the ceramic soil now). There's no problem with humidity since the
air holes in the lids are too tiny for the peat to dry out fast. Generally I
only have to add a teaspoon or two of water once near the end of incubation. You
could re-use the deli-cups you've collected. I've re-used some if the product
was non-oily (no peanut butter or margarine tubs). Also, stick to using only
containers that were meant for food storage. I've read enough about some
plastics degrading or oozing some chemicals, that I'm playing it safe with food
storage tubs. I also don't use the tubs for more than 2 turns in the incubator
if they're new, once if they're re-used. That's just my way of doing it.
Deli-cups are cheap enough, and there's a million other uses for them, that I
don't feel like taking a chance on them.
Hilde
--
~*~***~*~
If you see Santa, tell him I've been really good.
(and a few more electric outlets would be really nice :)
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