octagon 20 eco thermometer question

Hi, I'm going to be using my Octagon 20 Eco for the very first time. Where does the glass thermometer go?? It must be in the water, but it doesn't fit through the black grate that the eggs sit on. (Are you laughing at me yet?) Am I supposed to put a separate container of water in with the eggs in which to place the thermometer? Or should I pitch this glass thermometer anyway and just use the temp/humidity hygrometer from Wal-Mart? I'm confused! Thanks for your time.

Hi, it's me! Since no one answered, I guess I'm on my own with this one I just ended up using the Wal-Mart temp/humidity thingee. The window on the Octagon is not extremely clear plastic so I have a little difficulty reading it. When it begins to tilt backwards I can shine a flashlight in and make out the display a little. I add water through a bendy straw that's tilted towards the front and goes into the well without lifting the lid more than an inch. Today's day 5, showed the kids pictures of the embryo at Day 5 and they got all giggly because it "looks like an alien." Anyway, wishing myself luck!

Hi

I thought it was attached to the top ot the incubator, but I agree it's almost impossible to read and always seemed high. I used a remote one that had been used for my other hatched. Had to guess on the humidity. Visability isn't good in there. Did you set your eggs yet? What are you hatching?

Thanks for your answer and interest! I have 15 chicken eggs in there, they're a variety of mutts from my chickens and a friend's chickens. I'm incubating them at school for my first graders, and doing a big unit on life cycles. I've hatched chicks at home in my LG but the Octagon is new for school, purchased with bonus money because we were an A school this year (yay!) We have chicken charts all over the classroom with our daily temperature and humidity readings, and the pictures of the chick development. We're having a lot of fun and I'm crossing my fingers I get a good hatch for the kids. My rooster is young and I'm not too sure he has success all the time. We've seen the bullseye on a bunch of our yolks so hopefully I'm just worrying too much. Back to the Octagon (I do tend to ramble) it holds the temperature right on, but the humidity is an odd thing to control. It seems to want to stay right on 41% no matter how much water I add or how I adjust the vent. I think 41% is okay, but I hope it doesn't fall too far over the weekend. I can't go check on it because I live 40 minutes away and I don't have a key to the gate or building, only to my classroom. So..... Monday morning I'll be diving in there to check on it.

Good luck with your hatch! Your kids will think you are the best teacher ever!

That's funny, my daughter is a teacher and I get the kindergarden chickens every year. This year their incubator was being refurbished and I sort of wanted one anyway so I bought an LG. It was what the feed store had and I didn't know anything about them. They only hatched out one chick. Getting the Brinsea was really a good move. I finally got one for myself, I just don't think I could ever trust the LG over the week-ends.

Sounds like you're putting together a great lesson!

I'm sure you've checked out Mink Hollow, it really is great.

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I have the Octagon 20 ECO also and add water through a small hole in the top of the 'bator. There's a small symbol of a drop of water near the hole. By sticking a small straw through the hole there's no need to open the lid of the incubator.

I also found the Brinsea's thermometer to run a tad bit high. I used a digital thermometer/hygrometer (purchased at WalMart) and was pretty happy with it. Did you check the accuracy of your hygrometer? There are instructions in several threads here for "calibrating a hygrometer". If you need specifics let me know and I can email them to you.

Good luck! I love my Brinsea almost as much as my GQF cabinet 'bator and hatcher!

Thanks for that advice. I have 2 hygrometers and they always read 2% off of each other, so I kind of "split the difference" and calibrate that way... now, I will do the salt method on the one not in use, calibrate that to 75% and then mentally adjust the one in use accordingly. Also, I will look for the picture of the water drop on top of the cover - I may have noticed it before but for some reason didn't think it lined up with the water well correctly or something.... I'm never completely sure why I do what I do sometimes. Thanks!

>>I also found the Brinsea's thermometer to run a tad bit high. <<

I bought a new Brinsea brooder and the second night the temp spiked to 106 and "cooked" 3 of my Senegal parrot babies. Brinsea rep. would not do anything about it...said it probably was a power surge during a rain storm. Baloney!

Maybe their incubators are better...good luck.

Thanks for your input. I'm so sorry to hear that. The Wal-Mart hygrometer has done me proud in the past, that's the one that's in there now. It's probably just as well I couldn't figure the other one out! I'm hoping for an all-day Monday the 12th hatch - at least that's what my planning calls for. It'll be a bummer if the kids come in that Monday morning and all the babies have hatched. The whole idea is to have a hatch-day party at school, and do everything chickeny that day - chicken math, chicken stories, etc. etc.. I probably should have planned for a Tuesday or a Wednesday hatch, but there I go again ... it's heck being me, no rhyme or reason sometimes! LOL