Trust issues with my thermometers...

HumbleHen207

Songster
6 Years
Apr 16, 2013
275
28
103
Maine
Alright so I have a the mercury thermometer that came with my Hova Bator, and a brand new Accurite thermometer/ hydrogometer. I have had two digital thermometers in the last year and both have read about the same, and two mercury ones that have read about the same. I freaked out when the mercury read 5 degrees higher than the digital, however when I incubated eggs with the mercury I had severely delayed, issued hatches. I had slightly early, but better hatch rates when I hatched with the digital. Which would you trust? I cannot easily calibrate these thermometers as they dont have a huge range.
 
ya i have had troubles with thermometers last couple years, finally got my hovabator one fine tuned that i have to have it set at 104 F to get them to hatch on the day they are suposed to... best thing is trial and error, if theyy are hatching on time with your digital than use it, and remember what the mercury one was set at if you have a second incubator, run it at that temp.
 
Thanks, I think I will go with the digital, I wound up with major problems hatching with the mercury. Chicks whose feathers arent growing properly, some who walk backwards. Its kinda sad, and the eggs i have in now are for a friend, he bought the eggs and I really dont want to cook them.
 
I lost two batches of eggs due to both thermometers that came with my incubator being off. (read way low, I cooked the poor chicks).

I bought 3 thermometers and they were all off. I ended up with a digital indoor/outdoor one that works the best..

I have no idea if it is on, but the chicks hatched on time with it.
 
Oops! Sorry, I thought you had the issues with hatches with the digital thermometer, misread that. My bad. I've heard stories of the thermometers that come with incubators being off, yeah. I got lucky with mines
 
Also noticed the temperature in the center of the incubator is higher and more stable than near the edges, the thermometers read closer when they are put in the same spot in my incubator. I have a forced air incubator, and right under the fan is a few degrees warmer than next to the walls. Think im gonna trust my digital one on this batch, I have had better success with it than the mercury one.
 
I use a digital, many digitals. If my hatch is on time, then I figure it is "good" Close accurate. But if the hatch is early or late I then put a note on it so I can slightly adjust it for the next hatch. Adjust it by adjusting the thermostat on the incubator making it(thermometer) read less/more for the next hatch. Once I feel I have Learned this thermometer then I place some others next to it in the incubator for a few hours and write on them what they read----this will be the temp I will shoot for when adjusting the incubator thermostat. Example, say the first thermometer I had reads 99 to make the eggs hatch on time. When I put it and others in a empty heated incubtor for a few hours and the original reads 99, if the others read say 100, 101, 98 etc, I write this on the thermostat so when I put one of these in a different incubator, I adjust the thermostat on the incubator till it reads what is wrote on it. Works for me1
 
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i thought thats what the fan was designed for was to more evenly distribute the temp... guess not... couple years ago, i had bought a second hovebator, got the fan kit and auto egg turner, thinking all that should drastically improve my hatch rates, was getting around 60 % with my pheasants turning the eggs by hand... tried about 5 batches in it, and i think the best hatch i had was 3 eggs out of 40 :S back to turning them by hand, and no fan...
 
i thought thats what the fan was designed for was to more evenly distribute the temp... guess not... couple years ago, i had bought a second hovebator, got the fan kit and auto egg turner, thinking all that should drastically improve my hatch rates, was getting around 60 % with my pheasants turning the eggs by hand... tried about 5 batches in it, and i think the best hatch i had was 3 eggs out of 40 :S back to turning them by hand, and no fan...
My results were completely different. I have always used a turner till day 18(for chicken eggs) but adding the fan to a couple of my hovabator improved my hatch for chicken eggs. I have only hatched pheasant eggs one time(using a turner and fan) and that hatch was around 90%.
 

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