Accurate thermometer hygrometer combo

[kathie grey]

I hear peeping in my silkie eggs!!! e I set them around 9 pm on 4/29...so I may be a few hours ahead of the 4/30 setters!! 35 of 40 made it to lockdown. 27 of 30 shipped eggs made it to lockdown!!!! I was worried about very small air cells...but I looked at pictures and videos from last year's hatch and I see those looked even smaller and I had 100% hatch and survival from lockdown. Fingers and toes are crossed!! Waiting for 4 under my broody hens as well. We had a very early one hatch on Sunday. She is looking for some siblings to play with :yiipchick

 

[cppeace]

fabulous, baby chicks are so exciting!

 

[Bernadine503]

Kathie,

What did you use to check your temp & humidity levels? What type in incubator did you use. I'm a first time incubator and I'm on day 3....and a bit worried. I have a LG 11300 digital, forced air, and automatic turner. I have a reptile hygrometer inside the 'bator and it's reading 40%, but the digital says 70!!! Help!

 

[Jlee203]

Kathie,

What did you use to check your temp & humidity levels?  What type in incubator did you use. I'm a first time incubator and I'm on day 3....and a bit worried.  I have a LG 11300 digital, forced air, and automatic turner.  I have a reptile hygrometer inside the 'bator and it's reading 40%, but the digital says 70!!!  Help!

I ended up buying a Caliber 4R Gold Digital/Analog Hygrometer by Western Humidor off of amazon and it worked great! I finally had a successful hatch!

 

[kathie grey]

Kathie,

What did you use to check your temp & humidity levels?  What type in incubator did you use. I'm a first time incubator and I'm on day 3....and a bit worried.  I have a LG 11300 digital, forced air, and automatic turner.  I have a reptile hygrometer inside the 'bator and it's reading 40%, but the digital says 70!!!  Help!

Hello -
I have a still air Little Giant. I am an OCD freak so I have an Ambient weather WS-05 with 4 sensors. I put one in each corner because I know I have hot and cool spots. I also use the thermometer that came with the incubator and I have another old Radio Shack wireless sensor as a second check. (I barely have room for eggs...LOL)

I live with that thing by my side for the whole 21 days and I have a web cam on it for when I leave the house (yeah...a lot OCD!)

I found the WS-05 on eBay. Could not find it in a store anywhere. There are higher end models but the WS-05 seemed to have the smallest sensors. I used it out of the box and was lucky it was very close to accurate. I calibrated it with the salt method and 2 of 4 sensors matched on humidity to the exact number. One sensor was 1 % higher and the other 1% lower. So humidity was accurate. On the temp...I set them to match a calibrated thermometer I had..,they were only off 1-2 degrees. So my exp is the WS-05 I got was very accurate.

In my experience....I have had eggs (with a hen that abandoned them on day 18) get very cold and thought there was no way they could survive . All 7 hatched. I had a hen abandon a nest and even kick an egg out of the box in 50 degree weather for almost 4 hours. These one was more like day 13-15... And they all hatched healthy. I've had temp spike to 106 in a still air for about an hour...and all survived. So...despite how sensitive they say eggs are...they can be really tough. And mine were silkies which are supposed to be extra hard to hatch.

But...I still will never let my vigilance or guard down. I will not leave the little lives to chance no matter how many times we survive the minor and major incidents I fret for the full 21 days every single time.

I wish you great success with your hatch. You do everything the best you can and you know (if things don't turn out) that it was not your fault and it was what was meant to happen.

 

[kathie grey]

Oh....and ....error on the lower side for humidity for the first 18 days...error higher for days 18 to 21. On temperature.....ALWAYS error lower. I actually run slightly lower on temp and have had very healthy babies. No late hatches, no problems with sick, deformed or weak babies.

 

[frenchiegirl21]

I use the temp/hygro from Incubator Warehouse. It's their personal brand and is awesome! It has a probe that fits into the vent holes on the incubator and the reader stays outside the incubator. I've had over a year's worth of successful hatches.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I salt test my hygrometer before the start of each hatching season. Being calibrated it's accurate. It's a combo unit for cigar humidors, nothing special. Thermometer only reads to whole degree and is 2 degrees low. For the temperature I use an oral digital medical thermometer. We've all got one in the medicine cabinet and that's the most accurate inexpensive thing you'll ever find. Works excellent. Have a fan model incubator so put the thermometer in the vent hole and measure max temp then turn it off and on when the heater just turns on to get the lowest temp. Average the two and that's your temp.

 

[Bernadine503]

Awesome! I'll definitely try the suggested devises you all mentioned if I attempt to hatch in an incubator again. I truly appreicate all of the advise! I completely understand being a little OCD!!! Silly me....I didn't realize I had replies until now. Wish I would have logged back on as I am still learning how to read and post on this site.

My hatch in July was not as successful as I had hoped. I have 6 Blue Orpingtons that hatched, but one died about 4 days later. It was one who had struggled long after piping to hatch

Two were born with leg deformaties which I didn't notice until they got about a month older. One had a leg that would pull out sideways from underneath each time it tried to walk. As it got older she couldn't even stand up all the way. At two months the older ones were accidentely stomping on her (not sure, but I called it a her) and they eventually broke one of her little wings. My heart broke for her. My father in law decided it was best to cull the poor little thing and put her out of her misery.

The other chick with a deformed leg isn't so bad. It's little leg turns out a bit when it walks but it stands tall and gets around fairly well with the other chicks. My four little Oprpingtons are now almost 3 months old and seem to be doing well up at my in-laws farm. They will eventually join the other Buff Orpingtons at the farm.

I'm saddened by the results and feel somewhat guily for the little ones that were hatched with a deformed leg. The hatching experience was wonderful and I loved it. But because of the results I'm almost wondering if I dare try again. I feel so responsible for thier little lives. I read and re-read as much as I could before hatching and still had an unsuccssful hatch.

 

[jkteacher]

I am getting ready to hatch chickens again in my classroom. Last year we had a very poor hatch which I think I affected after reading about temperature and humidity and tried to correct issues too many times. I am hoping for a better hatch rate this year and think I need to purchase a new thermometer and possibly hygrometer. Should I get a combo? Should I purchase one of each? I read on a thread that people like the spot-check by Brinsea. It looks like that is only a thermometer. I am having a hard time finding a combo. Is it best to have one of each? My incubator is the hova-bator circulated air model no. 1583.