Accuracy?

[Briannaquinn16]

So I have Govee thermometers/checks humidity too Kuz I was worried about my incubators being inaccurate….which one should I follow? The incubators or the govee thermometer?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I would calibrate the government (if you haven't already) then ho from there.
Here is how you can calibrate if you dont know
Post in thread 'Just purchase some hatching eggs' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/just-purchase-some-hatching-eggs.1660568/post-28553884

 

[Tex452]

I trust my govee thermometers, but I don’t know about the hydrometer?
They always show lower readings than the incubators do, and since I dry hatch I don’t pay a lot of attention to humidity.
I have 4 incubators going and they all show the same humidity %, but I know if I put my govee’s in they would read lower humidity than the incubators hydrometer does.

 

[Briannaquinn16]

I trust my govee thermometers, but I don’t know about the hydrometer?
They always show lower readings than the incubators do, and since I dry hatch I don’t pay a lot of attention to humidity.
I have 4 incubators going and they all show the same humidity %, but I know if I put my govee’s in they would read lower humidity than the incubators hydrometer does.

Yeah that’s the thing I’m running into, so I should just trust the incubator? For the humidity? I hav two Apdoe incubators and they both also read the same humidity

 

[Ridgerunner]

Humidity is less important than temperature. Temperature is extremely important. Temperature determines at what rate they develop. You can be off of temperature a little bit and still get a good hatch, it may be early or late. But if it is off too much you can get a horrible hatch.

Nature gave you a lot more leeway with humidity. There are limits, but you get a lot more range and can still get a great hatch. Another thing with humidity is that different ones of us do better with different humidities. Some do better with humidities around 30%, some do better with 50%. The goal is to lose a certain amount of moisture from the egg before hatch. Humidity is one factor in that but there are other factors that affect it.

You can calibrate your hygrometer but that still won't tell you what your best humidity is. By evaluating unhatched eggs and keeping track of results I found my best results with my incubator and my hygrometer in my normal hatching location is around 40%. Other people get different results.

If an incubator gets moved in a commercial hatchery to a different position in the hatching room they go through the same process. By moving it in the same room they may have changed the sweet spot for humidity.

 

[Tex452]

Yeah that’s the thing I’m running into, so I should just trust the incubator? For the humidity? I hav two Apdoe incubators and they both also read the same humidity

I go by what the incubator says, like I said I dry hatch and humidity isn’t that important to me unless it gets to 15%, and it’s never done that.
Temperature is very important, even though I’ve had many hatches with my incubators, I still check the temperature every time I use them.

 

[Briannaquinn16]

I go by what the incubator says, like I said I dry hatch and humidity isn’t that important to me unless it gets to 15%, and it’s never done that.
Temperature is very important, even though I’ve had many hatches with my incubators, I still check the temperature every time I use them.

Yeah my incubators I feel like are the most accurate kuz I have them both running and there both at the same temperature but the humidity is like -1 apart, I’ll probably take the govees out and just rely on my incubators ( they weren’t cheap incubators ) until I can figure out the govees more, but even without the govees I had amazing hatch rates

 

[Briannaquinn16]

Humidity is less important than temperature. Temperature is extremely important. Temperature determines at what rate they develop. You can be off of temperature a little bit and still get a good hatch, it may be early or late. But if it is off too much you can get a horrible hatch.

Nature gave you a lot more leeway with humidity. There are limits, but you get a lot more range and can still get a great hatch. Another thing with humidity is that different ones of us do better with different humidities. Some do better with humidities around 30%, some do better with 50%. The goal is to lose a certain amount of moisture from the egg before hatch. Humidity is one factor in that but there are other factors that affect it.

You can calibrate your hygrometer but that still won't tell you what your best humidity is. By evaluating unhatched eggs and keeping track of results I found my best results with my incubator and my hygrometer in my normal hatching location is around 40%. Other people get different results.

If an incubator gets moved in a commercial hatchery to a different position in the hatching room they go through the same process. By moving it in the same room they may have changed the sweet spot for humidity.

I appreciate the honesty thank you, yeah I’ve been getting great hatch rates just by going off of what the incubator says, I just got the govees kuz someone else’s reccomended them to be honest lol, but I’ll keep the govees anyway just incase of emergencies or when I figure out how to use them……but for right now I’ll rely off of what the incubator says

 

[Tex452]

Yeah that’s the thing I’m running into, so I should just trust the incubator? For the humidity? I hav two Apdoe incubators and they both also read the same humidity

The first time I ever hatched was with a NR 360, I never checked the temperature or humidity, I did the dry hatch method, and hatched 20 out of 21 fertile eggs?