1st Hatching Journey - Little Giant

[Nabiki]

I've heard good things about the Govees, but I've never used one. I would start with a calibrated themometer (one that you can put in ice water and boiling water) and compare them.

 

[TeresaW]

I've heard good things about the Govees, but I've never used one. I would start with a calibrated themometer (one that you can put in ice water and boiling water) and compare them.

Except that I don't have one that can go in ice and boiling water.

Edit - found an analog meat thermometer

 

[TeresaW]

I think this evening's tests went pretty well. Here's the rundown if anyone is interested. (couldn't find my original Govee, so just used the other two.)

The meat thermometer spent about half an hour in the ice bath, but read 38F. Then I compared that one with the two Govees at room temp, which both ran high. I did some math and wrote how much to subtract from each one on masking tape and taped them to the Govees.

Then I put the Govees in the LG, one on the left, one on the right. I spent hours adjusting the LG to get the Govees to read correctly. At that point the humidity was in the low 30s. So I added a couple tablespoons of water. The humidity went up but so did the temps, so I had to adjust for that.

In the end I had the LG at 104F, the left Govee at 99.1, 62% humidity and the right Govee at 99.4, 61% humidity. Which is a tad low on temp and a tad high on humidity (for before lockdown). Not too bad for my first run. I'll run it some more tomorrow.

 

[TeresaW]

Also I tested the act of my opening the lid as little as possible to get my arm in there and quickly rotating the two quail rails I put in there and closing the lid as fast as I could.

The temp lowered 1.5F and took about 6-7 minutes to get back up to temp. Pretty happy with that.

(I ordered 2 dozen eggs which I'll arrange amongst the two quail rails so the eggs stay close to the middle of the incubator.)

Oh, I also noted that the left side of the incubator is a couple tenths of a degree cooler.

 

[CliftonQuail]

I think this evening's tests went pretty well. Here's the rundown if anyone is interested. (couldn't find my original Govee, so just used the other two.)

The meat thermometer spent about half an hour in the ice bath, but read 38F. Then I compared that one with the two Govees at room temp, which both ran high. I did some math and wrote how much to subtract from each one on masking tape and taped them to the Govees.

Then I put the Govees in the LG, one on the left, one on the right. I spent hours adjusting the LG to get the Govees to read correctly. At that point the humidity was in the low 30s. So I added a couple tablespoons of water. The humidity went up but so did the temps, so I had to adjust for that.

In the end I had the LG at 104F, the left Govee at 99.1, 62% humidity and the right Govee at 99.4, 61% humidity. Which is a tad low on temp and a tad high on humidity (for before lockdown). Not too bad for my first run. I'll run it some more tomorrow.

You can go into the individual device settings in the Govee app and actually calibrate them so you don't have to do any math when reading the temperature or humidity.

I also suggest doing a salt test to verify their humidity readings. Here's a link that explains how to salt test:

https://citycigarcompany.com/blogs/tips/using-a-hygrometer?_pos=1&_sid=ba0041b5e&_ss=r

Basically, you seal the hygrometer in a baggie with a saturated solution of salt and water, then wait 24-36 hours for it to stabilize. The reading should be 75% humidity under those conditions. You can test as many hygrometers at the same time as will fit in the bag.

 

[TeresaW]

You can go into the individual device settings in the Govee app and actually calibrate them so you don't have to do any math when reading the temperature or humidity.

I also suggest doing a salt test to verify their humidity readings. Here's a link that explains how to salt test:

https://citycigarcompany.com/blogs/tips/using-a-hygrometer?_pos=1&_sid=ba0041b5e&_ss=r

Basically, you seal the hygrometer in a baggie with a saturated solution of salt and water, then wait 24-36 hours for it to stabilize. The reading should be 75% humidity under those conditions. You can test as many hygrometers at the same time as will fit in the bag.

You know, I didn’t even download the app thanks. How do you keep the Govees dry while doing the humidity test?

 

[muddy75]

You know, I didn’t even download the app thanks. How do you keep the Govees dry while doing the humidity test?

The salt is saturated….theres no standing water in the bag

 

[TeresaW]

The salt is saturated….theres no standing water in the bag

Ah, ok. Thanks.

 

[CliftonQuail]

You know, I didn’t even download the app thanks. How do you keep the Govees dry while doing the humidity test?

As @muddy75 indicated, the salt is saturated. Use a bottle cap or something similar to hold a small amount of salt and add just enough water to make a paste.

 

[TeresaW]

I've got one Govee in a humidity test, waiting 24 hours on that.

For the other one, I redid the room temp test with the meat thermometer and came up with a difference from yesterday, so frustrating. Is that normal? Yesterday it was reading too high. Today I calibrated it like suggested, but then when I thought to redo the room temp test, it read too low.