First time hatch, need some advice.

, so I recently purchased a Farm Innovators Circulated Air 2250 Model Styrofoam Incubator. I also purchased the Farm Innovators 3200 model automatic egg turner. It has a digital thermostat which shows internal relative humidity, internal temperature, and days to hatch. I have read reviews which state, as usual, that you should not go by the built in digital thermometer reading. With that said, I have placed 4 glass tube aquarium thermometers wedged between eggs in the 4 main areas of the incubator (top left, bottom left, top right, and bottom right). I also use a digital zoo-med thermometer with probe to go down through the vent holes and spot check different areas of the incubator. I have the thermostat set at 100 degrees and have just began day 2 of incubation (or on countdown says day 20). I have found that on the right side of the incubator the temp seems to be pretty stable with slight fluctuations between 99 degrees F and 100 degrees F; however, on the left side it seems to stay around 98 degrees F with fluctuations up to not much higher than 98.5 degrees F. Humidity seems to be pretty stable, but that's not hard to accomplish in Florida where the humidity is always high. I worry about the eggs on the left side of the incubator being at too low a temperature, and I'm not sure what the best action to take would be. If I up the thermostat to 100.5 degrees or 101 degrees it would probably bring the left side eggs up to the ideal temp of 99.5 - 100 degrees F; however, I worry it would spike the right side that is already at the ideal temp range to a range that is too high and will cook my eggs. Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated. Below is some pictures of the incubator I am using. Thanks!

Your first hatch! How exciting! I typically hatch at 99.5 degrees. A degree or so lower will only slow down the development, you should still have a decent hatch. Some how, a hatch of mine was lowered to 98 degrees (unknown to me), I almost gave up when I didn't have any pips on the beginning of day 23, but I left them in and got some pips towards the end of day 23.

Hope that helps a little bit.

Yes, I'm very excited. This does help ease my mind some. I just can't understand why one side of the incubator is deaf on and the other is a degree too low. Especially seeing is a forced air incubator. My understanding was forced air incubators are better than still air in that they have even temperature throughout the entire incubator at yolk level. But somehow I still have temp pockets. Perhaps the fan is not strong enough?

evangjames89 said:

Yes, I'm very excited.

This does help ease my mind some. I just can't understand why one side of the incubator is deaf on and the other is a degree too low. Especially seeing is a forced air incubator. My understanding was forced air incubators are better than still air in that they have even temperature throughout the entire incubator at yolk level. But somehow I still have temp pockets. Perhaps the fan is not strong enough?

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I have an LG w/the fan and I still have warm/cool spots. At one point my right side was staying a degree to two degrees warmer. I came to the conclusion that mass distribution was uneven (I had more eggs in the left side than the right.) After I evened that out it seemed to regulate the sides better, but I still have warm spots (directly under my heating element is higher than around the sides and center.) I am just happy if my temp is above 99 and below 102. I do average the 100F for the most part, it seldom pushes the 102 mark, so I am happy as long as I have good development and the air cells are growing at the right rate.

You can, and I do, rotate eggs around to make sure that they aren't staying in a warm/cold spot for the duration of incubation. At one time I was even turning the top of the incubator throughout the day (before I got it more balanced) to offset one side being warmer.

Another thing to consider since you are using a turner is, "Is the side that is running warmer the side that the turner motor is on?" Those turner motors throw off quite a bit of their own heat as well. Just touch the motor and see if there is a lot of excess heat coming from it. I started hatching using the automatic turner and had a full turner for one hatch and the eggs directly by the motor was getting over heated, so I pulled the turner and started turning manually and I actually prefer that.

In theory they do say the fan keeps it more even and while I don't doubt that it keeps it "more" even than still, it doesn't-in my experience- keep it even through out.

And BTW:

AmyLynn2374 said:

And BTW:

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Thanks Amy, and thanks for the insight also.

I was just thinking....

Is your thermometer correct? Have you used multiple thermometers on that specific side to test accuracy?

...just a thought...