Lockdown Assist!

[JenEgrrrL]

I haven’t found the answers yet in threads So I’m hoping someone has advice… My incubator was running at a very steady average of 99.5 Fahrenheit all through Incubation, only fluctuating by about .2 degree above or below for brief periods. I went into lockdown last night and raised the humidity, and now the incubator temp is running consistently low. Is that something that typically happens? I had to turn up the incubator temperature .7 degrees this morning to get it to come back to 99.5, whereas I hadn’t had to mess with it at all from days 3-18. I’m wondering if the 5 PVC rollers that I removed were possibly retaining more of the heat previously, or maybe because the warm eggs are slightly farther away from the thermometer than they were (about 3.5 inches farther away)… the incubator is a square Styrofoam model that holds 12 eggs with circulating air. my Bluetooth thermometer is in the same position that it was during incubation & the vent hole is fully open as it has been throughout the past week.

I know at this stage the humidity is more important than the temp & the eggs can handle a slight drop in temp with the chicks close to hatching, but it’s just irking me as to why the temp has become inconsistent & worrying if it’s my gauge or the incubator, or the change in the environment inside with the rollers removed & eggs placed closer together in one spot farther away from the thermometer... I can hear some of the babies peeping inside their eggs and I’m just nervous that with the conditions now, if something is off with my read outs, are going to stress them and cause an issue! Am I just being a neurotic paranoid first time hatch momma, or should I perhaps continue to make adjustments?? Or Chill myself & give it more time to stabilize (it’s been 7 hrs since I opened it to remove the rollers & candle)...Maybe just move the thermometer closer to the eggs first before I get all crazy about adjusting temps & see if it resolves itself?

And one last question while we’re all here: does anyone actually spritz their eggs during lockdown?? My incubator instructions say to spritz the shells daily for the last 3 days, but the instructions are all obviously & questionably translated from Chinese. I do live in a very arid spot in Colorado, but I’ve placed a humidifier in my hatch room to keep the humidity outside the bator higher to help with less humidity dips inside. I’ve seen many camps on opposite ends of the spectrum from pretty hands-on, to don’t-you-dare-open-that-bator, so I know this one is relative, but I hadn’t seen any mention of spritzing the shells other than in my bator manual...

Any feedback is MUCH appreciated!

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

I don't spritz the eggs during lockdown, in fact, I never spritz eggs. I fill the water channels. A lot of people actually recommend the temp, at least for forced fan bators, to be 98.5-99.0 degrees during lockdown.

 

[JenEgrrrL]

I don't spritz the eggs during lockdown, in fact, I never spritz eggs. I fill the water channels. A lot of people actually recommend the temp, at least for forced fan bators, to be 98.5-99.0 degrees during lockdown.

Yes, I’ve seen both suggestions, to turn it down a bit and to keep it the same. So I guess at least to 98 degrees is nothing to be worried about! My bator had dipped down to 94 when I got up this morning so I’ve been trippin a little It is making me feel more intense now that I can hear them!! Ha

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

They do generate some of their own heat too if you can hear them chirping, you should be fine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not familiar with your incubator, the only one I've ever used is a Hovabator 1588 with the old style dip switch controllers. That's old technology. It's a forced air styrofoam that you control humidity by filling different reservoirs in the bottom. Once it stabilized and I got the settings right I never had to adjust it again other than water in those reservoirs. There are so many different incubators now with all kinds of different ways to adjust them or control temperature or humidity. Some are programmable. I'm old enough that I prefer simplicity. but I was glad they changed those dip switches into a dial in later models.

OK, I'll quit complaining. You said yours is a forced air, it has a fan. In theory it should not matter where inside you take the temperature, that fan should stir the air up so the temperature should remain the same throughout. I don't know what your turner looked like. If you removed a motor for that turner it may have been generating heat when running. That should not matter. The way the thermostat should work is that it turns the heater on when the temperature inside drops below a certain setting and turns it off when it hits a certain level. It should not turn an air conditioner on to lower the temperature, the heat should be lost over time due to the temperature outside being lower. The better the insulation the longer that should take.

That turner motor not being on should not matter but what is the temperature outside your incubator? My 1588 said it needed to be in a room with a minimum of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Below that the heater can't keep up. If it is fairly cold around your incubator the heater may not be able to keep up without that turner motor adding heat.

Is yours programable? Do you have different settings for lockdown versus normal incubation? How do you raise the humidity for lockdown, add water to a reservoir, flip a switch, or turn a dial? There may be something in that which caused the change.

Seven hours should be a lot longer than it takes for temperature to stabilize. One time during incubation after I refilled the water reservoirs the humidity never got back up where it should be. The temperature stabilized where it should but not the humidity. When I put the lid back on I did not get it seated right. A lot of air was leaving that should not have been. Did something like that happen, where you didn't get it put back together correctly?

You said it is a circulating incubator. Is the fan still running? Warm air rises and cool air settles. If that fan is not running then the elevation of the thermometer and thermostat are very important.

What you are seeing should not be happening, especially all the way down to 94 F. I don't now if that has something to do with the incubator itself, where you have it, or something you've done.

To me that drop is not good but I think they'll be OK at 94. I'd rather have it a little warmer. They are basically grown and generating a lot of their own heat, they just need to hatch. Once they hatch if you put them in a brooder at 90 F they should be warm enough. But that incubator dropping like that is worrying.

On the spritzing. I do not spritz chicken eggs. I've never hatched ducks but I think you may spritz duck or goose eggs. I would not worry about that.

 

[JenEgrrrL]

Thanks for that bit of confidence!! It’s at least one of my five that’s doing the chirping. I can’t tell if it’s more yet- that little peeper was moving & talking so much when I candled last night that it took me several extra rotations on the candler to tell where the lower dip even was! It was totally reacting to the sound (and maybe feel?!) of the pencil as I was trying to trace the air cell! I put that one closest to the window bc I have an inkling it’ll be the 1st to break out! The others were definitely moving and pulsing, just not nearly as active during candling.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

How did your hatch turn out? I'm having the same issue. I think it's due to adding the water. The water was hot when I added it, but it's cool now so I'm thinking that it's drawing the temperature down.