Waterbator review

The 7 eggs in the waterbator are due to hatch in the next day or two.

I don't have much hope for them.

At this point I think they are all alive. But...those air sacs are NOT big enough! I predict drowned chicks.

Recall that the point of the waterbator was to not blow hot air on the eggs. Thus not dehydrating them. Thus avoiding the need for adding humidity back in to compensate for the over drying. Humidity is required because we hatch with hot air, which is NOT how a hen does it.

IT seems that no evaporating took place hardly at all! Those air spaces should be so much bigger, but they are not. SIgh.

There are several issues here that need to be examined separately though.

Do I feel the waterbator is a superior design over the Hovabator or foambator (Styrofoam cooler)? Yes.

Why? Even heat. There were no hot or cold spots. The water beneath the eggs maintained an even temperature. Did not have to shuffle eggs around to get them in or out of cold or hot spots.

Did it maintain temps I was happy with? MOstly yes. The failure here was not of design idea, but of design execution. I still have not come up with a switch mechanism or wafer holder that is going to work just right. I think the basics for a good, small bator are there, it's just fine tuning the details that I need to figure out. I feel the basic plan is sound. THe temps, for the most part, made me quite happy.

How can I be happy if I suspect none of my eggs will hatch? Good question. I think the bator functioned pretty much as I had hoped. However, maybe I needed to leave the roaster lid off, to allow more air movement. Considering there are two extension cords coming out of the roaster and the lid never sat tight, I figured it was pretty leaky. BUt maybe I was wrong. I was worried that the water bag would not be able to hold its temp very well if I took the lid off. But a couple days ago I did take the lid off, covered the whole works with a tea towel, and the water maintained its temps just fine. NEXT TIME, I will incubate without the lid, just a tea towel for cover. I am happy with the function, not happy with the results, and don't know if dead chicks are a result of function, or me not doing things right. Two different issues.

THe eggs themselves might be the problem. Young, healthy birds that lay thick, dense shells mean those eggs do not evaporate as quickly as a more porous shell. In the past I have sanded shells to increase their porosity. Maybe I need to do that with these eggs. I might have had different results with different eggs. BUt this will remain an unknown for now.

Overall I like this design, the even heat, the non-drying environment. The waterbator does indeed do away with the need to fuss over adding enough humidity. Next time I will try it with the lid off and watching eggs for the correct rate of air sac growth. I think anyone could reproduce this contraption at home for a reasonable cost and hatch small batches. If I ever figure out a better switch mechanism, I will get even more refined temperature control.

Despite the fact that I don't think I'll get a single live chick, I am going to give the waterbator a B grade. Good, but still no genius.

uno wrote:At this point I think they are all alive. But...those air sacs are NOT big enough! I predict drowned chicks.

Uno, until recently, the eggs I hatched had very small air sacks and hatched with above 80% rates. I say until recently because I recieved a shipment of eggs that, when I candled them for lockdown, they were over HALF airsack in the egg. I thought for sure these eggs were dead and would never hatch, but I left them in because I had never seen it before and they all hatched.

In short, I never realized just how small those air sacs could get/should be, and have maintained pretty good hatch rates with small air sacks.

Good luck!

Hey Uno,

When you did you ducks and geese did you spray and cool them daily?

I am with you on the drowned chicks and small air cells I often have the same issue. I have tried complete dry incubation this year with no better success.

When I was originally researching incubation waterfowl eggs several sites said that the spraying actually helps with evaporation and to monitor aircells. I have done some duck eggs in an medical grade incubator that is still air and I add no water except the misting cooling. It works really well as long as I actually turn them and dont fry or chill them

The eggs in the hovabator with no added water still had small cells and fetuses died at hatch.

I have noticed the last few times I stuck my hand under a broody that its extremely moist. One this morning I was checking eggs under had her belly and breast feathers parted and so it was pretty much skin on eggs and it was quite "sweaty" feeling in there.

How do you think you can recreate that mist feeling? I think there might be something to it?

When I incubated the duck and goose eggs in the Hovabator, I did mist them daily, and I did let them cool when I took them out to candle them. Which I did every day. No water in the water tray, but misted them with a spray bottle.

Roughly 50% hatched just fine and the other 50% made it all the way only to die at the finish line.

The dead ones had large amounts of slime in the egg and yolks way out. As well, there was a lot of bloody mess in with the slime, like there had been bleeding, which there should not be! I think when you have half die and half hatch, can you really blame that on incubating problems? If the incubating was that bad, shouldn't all of them die?

As for the moisture under a hen, let me be my broken record self again. An egg is mostly water. As it incubates that water MUST move OUT of the shell. As it does, it creates a somewhat humid environment under the hen. Because the hen is bare flesh against her eggs, she preserves and maintains the natural humidity let off by the eggs. SHE DOES NOT ADD HUMIDITY in my humble opinion. But she also does not destroy it with hot blowing air. So...eggs hatch in a somewhat humid environment created by their own evaporation and the protective cover of a hen's body. But we muck that up when we add hot blowing air as a means of incubation.

With the waterbator, with the eggs sitting on a warm bag of water, I was attempting to re-create the conditions under a hen. Even heat, no hot blowing air. I got the even heat, but I am still alarmed that the eggs did not evaporate enough (in my opinion) they are too heavy to hatch! Too much water still in there. Ugh.

I think it is better to create a naturally humid environment, determined by the egg's own rate of off gassing water vapour and not destroy that with a fan and element. I do think the waterbator feels closer to how a hen feels than the Hovabator does.

I am sorry I have not weighed in on anything Waterbator related yet. Do not think me snobby or elitist with my run of the mill store bought incubator. It is just that whenever I see the word 'Waterbator' I unfortunately read the word as 'Waterboarder' and my mind shifts in quick succession from torture to kneeboarding and back. It is really messing me up.

What about covering with saran wrap?

Sorry if I am being repatitive I dont always pay attention or read well

Sue, if you find the name distracting, by all means, think up a new one. I was going for plain and descriptive. An incubator that uses heated water to warm the eggs, waterbator. But visions of a groovy, psychedelic 60s room with a happening waterbed flash into my mind, so maybe we could call it the Austin Powers Mojobator, Yeah baby!

Fuzzy, I think covering the ?bator with plastic wrap would be counterproductive. I want to get that moisture out, out, out! Not keep it in! I want those air cells BIGGER, which means I need MORE evaporation, not less. I'm thinking I should have had the roaster lid off the whole time. Eggs need to breathe, plastic wrap would slow that down for sure.

Mojobator definitely brings up a better vision in my mind.

Uno, I know you are trying to make it from things around the house but one of these maybe able to work for a switch mechanism.

Plug 'n Play Digital Electronic Thermostat with Remote Sensor

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Availability: In stock
CA$78.88

Quick Overview

Features:

Digital Electronic Thermostat
Plug ‘n Play – Just plug in your heater
Pre-wired – ready for use
24 Inch Remote Sensor
Fahrenheit or Celsius
Calibration enabled
Key lock feature

Just plug in and you're ready to go!

uno wrote:Sue, if you find the name distracting, by all means, think up a new one. I was going for plain and descriptive. An incubator that uses heated water to warm the eggs, waterbator. But visions of a groovy, psychedelic 60s room with a happening waterbed flash into my mind, so maybe we could call it the Austin Powers Mojobator, Yeah baby!

Fuzzy, I think covering the ?bator with plastic wrap would be counterproductive. I want to get that moisture out, out, out! Not keep it in! I want those air cells BIGGER, which means I need MORE evaporation, not less. I'm thinking I should have had the roaster lid off the whole time. Eggs need to breathe, plastic wrap would slow that down for sure.

...........Sorry but if you want more evaporation then why ?? didn't you have a fan in there somewhere ? a small computor fan ? anything ?? It would have helped in taking out any moisture or at the very least it would have dried the air ?

Ah. The hen has no fan, thus the waterbator has no fan. My mistake, I think, was keeping the lid on. A hen has no lid.
It's the artificial addition of blowing air, that makes us have to compensate with humidity. If I am going to invent and incubator that does not demand that we fiddle with humidty levels, I better not put a fan in it!

Ooohh...I LIKE that digital thermostat!

Unnatural incubation makes for unnatural methods.

Uno, in my incubator the fan doesn't blow on the eggs, it blows on the water. It evaporates the water and the moist air circulates around the eggs but does not blow on them. I control the humidity with air vents. More open, less humid. More closed, more humid.

Without this humidity control dry incubation around here can be extremely low.

uno wrote:Ah. The hen has no fan, thus the waterbator has no fan. My mistake, I think, was keeping the lid on. A hen has no lid.
It's the artificial addition of blowing air, that makes us have to compensate with humidity. If I am going to invent and incubator that does not demand that we fiddle with humidity levels, I better not put a fan in it!

Oooh...I LIKE that digital thermostat!

.......just a thought ..........If the hen sits on her eggs providing heat and the turning that she also does , is it her skin that absorbs the moisture ? In order for her to get that sticky / humid feeling on her skin might point towards her absorbing the moisture in through her skin because where is it disappearing to ? That moisture that disappears has to be going into what ever is making contact with it ? We all know how warm a feather blanket is , no heat loss there so it would be doing the same thing with a hen sitting on her nest of eggs ? heat rises and so does humidity so ??? Not sure why I'm replying to this , I have always thought that the hen absorbs the humidity and releases it away from the eggs to keep the heat where it should be as well as allowing the proper growth of the embryo......my thoughts only

I am now completely convinced that i will never be able to hatch anything...EVER! Too much confusing stuff to know.

Echo 1 wrote:I am now completely convinced that i will never be able to hatch anything...EVER! Too much confusing stuff to know........

.....It's actually quite easy ........

Echo 1, never fear and do not let my tribulations with inventing a better bator put you off. There are lots of people who buy an incubator, follow the instructions and hatch eggs.

I am not one of those people.

Eggs hatch, or not, for many, many reasons. Some of them we control, some of them we don't. Some of them we have no way of knowing about.

I like thinking about this stuff. I like questioning popular wisdom because I think popular wisdom gets a little too full of itself and likes the sound of its own voice. I am not easily convinced that popular wisdom is all that wise. Plus, if I don't think about something, my brain will turn to mush and slide out my ear.

Hatch an egg or two, you may be brilliant at it!

There were 6 live eggs bumping last night. I felt 4 of them were too heavy to make it, too much moisture still in that shell. Drowned chicks.

One died in the shell, no pip.

One never pipped and I performed a caesarean, but the chick did not live. The chick was very wet, slimy, the yolk was IN and perfect in every way. But those wet chicks rarely live, there is something about them that is not vigorous. Those wet chicks rarely make it.

3 have hatched on their own, 4th is hatching as I type. They are damp but not slimy or sticky. Despite no humidity, no one got stuck.

Is this a success? Don't know. This was 100% humidity free and I still got the slime chicks that never pipped. This is maddening! 6 potential hatchers, 4 chicks. Hmmm.

EDITED TO ADD I have noticed that a cold wet chick placed in the foambator or Hovabator seems to remain cold for a long period. Not in the waterbator. The direct contact with the warm water bag warms them right up. Also the newly hatched are less squawky than Hovabator chicks. They are cuddled under a piece of fabric, quiet and cozy and wonderfully warm. However...the slippery surface of the bag is NOT conducive to steady walking, so those chicks have to come out soon or else they'll have leg problems.