Incubation-Maino incubator anyone?

[its hilly]

Ive got a Maino ME3 incubator, with the automatic turning cradle.
Bought 2nd hand (ebay of course) so didnt come with instructions. Or..possibly..all its bits.
Water trays keep being mentioned, but this just had the cradle and nothing else. I now have 2 lengths of baton which I sit the cradle on so its not in the water (it had rusty feet so that must be how it had been used before) as it takes up the whole floor leaving no room for a pot. When it comes to day 18 I take all the eggs out of the cradle and put them on a piece of towelling, and put in water pots.

Does anyone have one with all its bits and instructions. My hatches are improving each time as I add more knowledge (thanks Bramble for the humidity info) but I hear things like 90% hatch from an incubator and think how?

[Bramble-Poultry]

i had trouble with humidity on my duck eggs last batch. an old salt in the know told me he uses a polystyrene box with the thermostat etc fitted, then uses a piece of turf in the bottom. he waters the turf and puts the eggs directly on that.

he reckons that its getle release of the water, zero risk of drowning and the fact that the chicks have something firm under their feet from day one leads o his successful hatches and near zero spradle leg.

might have to have a go at one of thise myself!

[its hilly]

Thats a cracking idea..if you'll pardon the expression..if you were hatching geese they'd have breakfast on tap too.
I think my hatches would go better if they'd stop turning the power off in the middle of the night. This last hatch I came home from work a week before hatching and found the inci cold, although the eggs were cold to touch they were still slightly warm to hold. apparently a power surge had tripped the main board.
quickly turned it on, and stuck the little fan heater in the end to warm the air fast, then thinking the eggs were chilled and would draw heat out of the inci until they were warm again added hot water insead of warm, to get the humidity back. Didn't think there would be much chance, but I've got nine little fluffies running round now They really are tough little things in some ways aren't they.

[Bramble-Poultry]

thats great news. we lost over £200 worth of eggs the other week due to a power cut - planned maintenance apparently, but no-one bothered to tell us. it was out for 16 hours.

We had a few hatch so it wasnt a total disaster, but those that did hatch werent very good. Some were weak and passed away later, some had deformed legs etc. so not a very good hatch for us.

asked for compensation, basically told to b*gger off. Not impressed.