At this point in incubating the embryos are making their own heat. If you have to error make sure it's to the cool side. Try to keep it between 97-101 and you should still get a good hatch. Put your most valuable eggs in the spot with the best temp. Not ideal but it's the best you can do. Hopefully it'll even out when it's closed for longer.
It's hard to get this far and have a wrench thrown in. Just keep being attentive and you'll have some chicks before you know it.
It's hard to get this far and have a wrench thrown in. Just keep being attentive and you'll have some chicks before you know it.
But it's still day 18, so I'll keep adjusting until I get it right. The incubator's water channels (which are under the mesh floor) looked like they are all connected, so I thought if I stuck a piece of aquarium tubing in one of them, I could refill them all without opening the lid or sticking multiple tubes in. Well, it turns out they weren't connected after all... The one I was filling overflowed (it's really hard to see with the kitchen liner along the floor), the egg cartons soaked it up and got wet... so I had to open the lid and replace them. I used the opportunity that the lid was open anyway (well, cracked, not all the way off) and readjusted things again. I lifted the new egg cartons up onto a metal cooling rack, so they're off the floor. I also stuck a piece of wood under the fan to prop it up off the floor a little, so it can suck air from the back better and improve the circulation. And, since the lid was lifted anyway, I filled all of the water channels, one by one. Right now all the channels are full, and there's a small jar of water with a sponge in it. I gave it about an hour, but the humidity is still only about 60% 
Grrr if it's not one thing, it's another! How can I raise the humidity further? Should I stick another jar with a sponge in there? Also, how can I refill all the channels without opening the lid? I already have a piece of tubing going into one of them, but it's using up one of the smaller ventilation holes (the incubator has a bunch of small holes, and then the two big ones that had the red plugs). I'm afraid that if I use more holes for piping, I won't have enough ventilation... 
