Temperature Variation

Hello, all!
I recently set a batch of shipped eggs. Before I did so, I checked the accuracy of my digital thermometer by putting a ziplock bag full of water into the incubator over night. I measured the water bag's temperature and it measured one degree cooler than the digital thermometer's reading. I adjusted the incubator temp to 100.5 and set the eggs.

It has been a week, and on a whim I rechecked the water temperature. It measured dead on with the digital thermometer. It would seem I have been incubating the batch at an actual 100.5 instead of the assumed 99.5.

I am curious to know your thoughts on the situation. It is an old cabinet incubator, but it does fluctuate about 1 degree up or down throughout the course of the day, but I do adjust the thermostat regularly. Still, it would mean there have been times the eggs were exposed to 101.5 degree temperatures.
Ordinarily, with fresh eggs I wouldn't expect to see much of a difference except for a possible early hatch. But with shipped eggs, I sure am weary.

Fowlisfair said:

Hello, all!
I recently set a batch of shipped eggs. Before I did so, I checked the accuracy of my digital thermometer by putting a ziplock bag full of water into the incubator over night. I measured the water bag's temperature and it measured one degree cooler than the digital thermometer's reading. I adjusted the incubator temp to 100.5 and set the eggs.

It has been a week, and on a whim I rechecked the water temperature. It measured dead on with the digital thermometer. It would seem I have been incubating the batch at an actual 100.5 instead of the assumed 99.5.

I am curious to know your thoughts on the situation. It is an old cabinet incubator, but it does fluctuate about 1 degree up or down throughout the course of the day, but I do adjust the thermostat regularly. Still, it would mean there have been times the eggs were exposed to 101.5 degree temperatures.
Ordinarily, with fresh eggs I wouldn't expect to see much of a difference except for a possible early hatch. But with shipped eggs, I sure am weary.

Click to expand...

I have an old LG and if I can keep it between 99.5 and below 101 I am happy. I just finished my first shipped eggs in it, (been staying away from shipped for a long time...lol) and out of the 14 that made it to lockdown 12 hatched. I didnt see anything different with the shipped in regards to the temp changes than my own and local.

Do you add water or do you incubate dry?

Fowlisfair said:

Do you add water or do you incubate dry?

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I run dry if I can. As long as it's above 25% dry. If it's not I add a sponge to keep it right around 30% because that's my comfort zone and what has worked best with my eggs, but I monitor the air cells to keep on target. I just finished a hatch this morning with shipped silkie eggs and for the first time I had to run between 40-50% because these eggs were small and lost moisture too fast at the lower humidity.

Thanks! Does anyone else have care to weigh in on my situation?

After reading 100's of posts in the incubator section of this forum, most people deal with fairly large fluctuations in their humidity and temperature, and hatch 70-90%. Styro incubators seem to be the worst for variations but the cheapest, so people just deal with it.

Besides which, if mother nature wouldn't tolerate a one degree flucutaion in temps while incubating chicks, I seriously doubt this forum would even exist.

If you're concerned about it (personally, the constant changing of the t-stat would drive me nuts), I would remove the heating components and replace them with something more reliable, starting with the thermostat.

Hope that helps.

my take on naturally incubating eggs is based on both my experience raising Zebra Finches (which hatch their own eggs) and Wild Turkey behavior which we have many of here
In Zebra finches both parents incubate the eggs and it is rare that the eggs are unattended more than 5 min at a time. So in their case temp is fairly constant. They hatch out very immature babies who require feeding a good while
In Wild Turkeys only the hen broods- like with chickens. They hatch out quite mature chicks- like chickens. The hen leaves the nest for up to an hour at a time sometimes longer sometimes less to find food. Spring here in NH is cold. At times during nesting time our nights are 10-30F which the hen stays on the nest for, but days can vary from 30-70F It can be a daytime high of 38 today and 74 tomorrow and back again. I would bet you the eggs cool dramatically when the hen leaves the nest, yet as long as we do not have a cold RAINY nesting season typically the hens have a brood of chicks

So temp variation is ready to move chicks of single sex brooding species during brooding seems to be the norm