Noted- thank you. I will use some mason jars next time.
I think I figured out why my hatch is moving slowly. It's not--the first one is malpositioned so it pipped straight through the shell instead of internal pip first. Usually, there is some time between internal and external pip so it...
Outside of lockdown, I use a fist-sized rock as a heat sink. When in lockdown, I figure the humidity is enough of a heat sink. That's why I like having slightly high humidity, it keeps the temp from swinging a lot when the heating element cycles on and off.
My incubator is a home built and very particular about things when it comes to lockdown. My incubator is in my room and exposed to a draft when the AC turns on (can't be helped, unfortunately because there is no room for it elsewhere). When the AC kicks on, the temperature drops by 0.2 degrees...
No, it is not salt tested, it is digital. My first hatch ran too high on the humidity. 40-50% for incubation and 70-75% for lockdown. The air sacs were so small that a lot of the chicks didn't even use it and just went through the shell instead. Some of my chicks hatched a little sticky...
This morning, my incubator started having issues maintaining temperature. It turned out that my humidity trays had sprung a leak and slowly leaked out and evaporated. The changing humidity was driving the temperature fluctuations (they weren't extreme--fluctuated between 99-101 degrees)...