How bad is overheating the incubator?

[tarbios2]

I ordered eggs online. I made a still-air incubator, but it's been difficult keeping the temperature and humidity constant. Sometimes it dips to 99, drift up to 100-102 durning the daytime, and stay there most of the time. But on occasion I've found it has risen as high as 104. On the two or three occasions I've seen this happen, I immediately fan out the incubator and get the temp back down to 100 - 102.

I'm pretty concerned that I've damaged the eggs because of this. The hatching date is April 26. Do they stand a chance?

 

[bugflipper]

Probably won't have a very high hatch rate. I went throught the same thing with a little giant still air incubator 20 years ago or better. The best thing that happened to that thing was it burnt out the first year. Maybe try a fan in it to see if it can normalize the temp any?

 

[Henny]

Don't give up hope as I have learned the impossible does happen.

 

[BantamLover21]

Temperature fluctuations, especially high ones, usually aren't good for eggs. But I've had the temperature reach 105 degrees F. before with no loss of fertile, alive eggs, so I wouldn't give up hope.

 

[Jacqdiva]

I have 2 janoel 24 incubator today the outside temp was 35 degrees Celsius I didn't see that the incubator temp had hit 40c. It was probably just the hottest part of the day. I saw it at about 1:30pm. I took both incubators down to a working temp of 30 C and they are now sitting around what I always run them at 38 C. I always get great hatch rates and as my small thermometers I put inside always tell me the actual temps are about 36/37....I am thinking it didn't REALLY hit 40 degrees inside. How can I adjust them so they will run as usual when it is so hot here? Any ideas? Any experience with this?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I ordered eggs online. I made a still-air incubator, but it's been difficult keeping the temperature and humidity constant. Sometimes it dips to 99, drift up to 100-102 durning the daytime, and stay there most of the time. But on occasion I've found it has risen as high as 104. On the two or three occasions I've seen this happen, I immediately fan out the incubator and get the temp back down to 100 - 102.

I'm pretty concerned that I've damaged the eggs because of this. The hatching date is April 26. Do they stand a chance?

Still air incubators should be maintained at 101-102 degrees average during incubation. I believe 104 is on the death temp line, but it's going to depend on how long the bator was actually at the higher temp. The inside of the egg doesn't warm and cool as fast as the outside air. It's the temp of the inside of the egg that will make or break the hatch. So if it hit 104, but was caught quickly, then chances are the eggs will remain viable. If they were at 104 for an extended amount of time that allowed for the inside to meet that temp and hold, then chances are the viability of the egg will have been cooked.
So overall, I would say that the eggs do have a good chance, but my question would be your hatch date. I am assuming that the hatch date would be January 26th? Even Emu eggs don't take that long to hatch.