Incubator Tempature Keeps Going Up and Down [Help]

[reede]

Hey guys got a new incubator

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Egg-Incubator-Hatcher-48-Digital-Control-Auto-Turner-For-Chicken-Duck-Fowl-Eggs/311553250214?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

The Tempature is at 37.6 but keeps going down to 37.5 and lower some times and then goes up to 37.7 some times how do i make it stay at one tempture -_-

I dont want the eggs to die again like in the last incubator

 

[bcarthen]

You are going to have some temperature fluctuation. If your temp is 37.5 celsius (99.5F) and goes to 37.7 (99.86). That fluctuation is completly normal. If it spikes up to 38.1 or drops to 36.9 is when i would get a little concerned.

 

[reede]

do you what what level the humidy should be at ???

 

[reede]

on the incubator its currently 52

 

[bcarthen]

It depends on your location and relative humidity. Where i live in NC my relative humidity is around 40-45%. So i do not add any water until lockdown where i bump it up to around 70%. Most people will say around 30-40% for the first 18 days. If you are incubating duck eggs its a little higher.

 

[reede]

It depends on your location and relative humidity. Where i live in NC my relative humidity is around 40-45%. So i do not add any water until lockdown where i bump it up to around 70%. Most people will say around 30-40% for the first 18 days. If you are incubating duck eggs its a little higher.

i am doing chicken eggs and on my inucbator its tells you the humidty and its 48 now

 

[bcarthen]

I dont always trust the hygrometer on the incubator. Some are true but some arent. Get a seperate thermometer/hygrometer and place in there also. In mine i have the units one, and two others that i placed in there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't trust any thermometer or hygrometer unless they have been calibrated. Any of them can be off. I have three and none read quite right to start with. Since the one in your incubator is built in I'm not sure of the best way to calibrate it, but I'd use a medical thermometer that has been calibrated and compare. That temperature fluctuation makes it a bit harder to get that calibration since a medical thermometer just reads he highest temperature. But if that is all the fluctuation you are getting it will be close enough. If that is all the fluctuation you are getting and you are in the right temperature range you are doing great.

Humidity is a bit more challenging. For many reasons different humidities work for different ones of us. Instantaneous humidity isn't that important, it's what the humidity averages over the entire incubation period since it is about total moisture loss through the porous shell over the entire incubation. Some people do great around 30%, some like 50% better. Through trial and error I've found my sweet spot is around 39 to 40% on my hygrometer. I've never calibrated my hygrometer so I don't know exactly what the real humidity is, but as long as I stay around 39 to 40% with my hygrometer I do OK.

My suggestion is to try a specific humidity. Try to be fairly constant, not jumping around everywhere. See what kind of results you get and make adjustments in later incubations if necessary. Open the unhatched eggs and try to figure out why they did not hatch. There is a pretty wide window for humidity that works, you don't have to be spot on.

 

[reede]

it appintly says the humidy is at 62

 

[Ridgerunner]

Have you started incubation yet or are you still getting it set up? I'm not familiar with that incubator so I'm not sure how my handle humidity but often it takes a while for humidity to stabilize when you first set them up. I add water to reservoirs in the bottom of mine. If I spill water when filling a reservoir and get something else wet the humidity spikes until that spilled water all evaporates.

If it has stabilized at 62 I'd think that's too high during the start of incubation. During lockdown I'd want it higher.