About to $#&%! scream...bator troubles

[PrincessKiara]

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=226473311807010&id=100033330276706

This is my incubator and the bulb I'm using. Temperature seems to have stabilized...at 39.3°C after I poked holes in the lid. I'm broke af and cannot afford a thermostat, my hens will not go broody and I have only so much room in my boobs...any help please?

I have a second, fish tank mercury thermometer in the other corner and it reads 96°F where the digital hygrometer reads 102.74°F. What gives?

 

[Pyxis]

I can't watch the video right now, is there a fan? If not, it sounds like you have hot spots and cold spots, not uncommon in a still air incubator, but still a problem. Adding a fan would be the easiest way to fix it, followed by moving the heat source to a more central location.

A thermostat is really the only way to make sure you have nice, consistent, correct temperatures. If you absolutely can't afford one, the only thing you can really do is play around buying bulbs in different wattages and seeing which keeps the incubator the closest to the correct temperature.

 

[PrincessKiara]

I can't watch the video right now, is there a fan? If not, it sounds like you have hot spots and cold spots, not uncommon in a still air incubator, but still a problem. Adding a fan would be the easiest way to fix it, followed by moving the heat source to a more central location.

A thermostat is really the only way to make sure you have nice, consistent, correct temperatures. If you absolutely can't afford one, the only thing you can really do is play around buying bulbs in different wattages and seeing which keeps the incubator the closest to the correct temperature.

I unfortunately can't get one right now I think I will have to get an old computer fan or something because I don't think this is conducive to hatching...

 

[JaeG]

Try adding a 'heat sink' to your incubator in the form of a brick or bottles of water. They should help to stabilise your temperature.

Do you have a medical thermometer you can compare your thermometers to? That way you'll know how accurate they are. Take a note of how many degrees they are off by and you'll be able to get a better idea of what your incubator temperature really is.

 

[PrincessKiara]

I'm using my digital hygrometer and comparing it to my dad's infrared thermometer gun thing. We seem to have hit the sweet spot, and 17 babies are now cooking Will know in a few days how many, if any, survive.

Thank you!