Anyone else ever measure a hen's settings locally?

[Kung Foo Chicken]

Last spring I put probes under one of my hens because she had excellent hatch rate
which was much more than myself even though mine was not that bad but, still nothing
like hers.

I'm going to try it soon with some D'uccle eggs to see how it comes out.


Her temps varied from 99-101
Humidity under her was flat out 50-52% throughout the entire 21 days.
During hatching she raised up slightly as the humidity became greater and let some
of the humidity vent. (at least that appears to be what she was doing.)

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! I've done that here and my readings were similar to yours.
Humidity readings were between 50% and 55% until chicks started hatching and then it went up a little.

Lisa

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

Now THAT is super interesting! I had been wondering that, thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Kev]

Way cool. Have wanted to try but never got around to it. I also wanted to try finding out just how often a hen turns the eggs- and how much(degrees) the eggs are turned also. That would either help or worsen the turning/no turning debates!

Should try this with a setting peahen... peafowl eggs are much harder to artificially incubate than chicken eggs.. might find out a few new things?

 

[MelissaR]

How did you do it?

It sounds like a neat experiment.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! I just put one of these Springfield Precisetemp combo units

under a hen with eggs (after I popped off the hinge-y part on the back).
I had a probe taped to an egg for a while, but the hen kept getting tangled on the wire --- the probe only measured temperature anyway and the wire seemed to annoy the hen, hahaha. It was interesting to find that when temps were hitting 110 degrees during a heat wave, temps under the hen stayed right around 100 degrees.

Lisa

 

[Serrin]

Quote:
Yes, but when you consider how excellent their feathers are at insulating, is it any wonder it was just the right temperature under her? They work both ways you know...keeping cold air out, as well as temperatures that are too high for their eggs. Makes perfect sense to me! Still, it never ceases to amaze me at what a remarkable creature a chickens is!!

 

[IggiMom]

How clever of you!

Catherine

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

Quote:
My dad had one that was wireless and the probe was a small sending unit. I borrowed one of the small wireless probes and put a piece of velcro between it and the nestbox, then covered with a thin piece of foam
and put the eggs around it. (not wanting her to break the eggs against the sending unit.) My dad lives next door so it reached that far easily. I'm going to have to get one of those for the incubator so it can be monitored from anywhere in the house. I thought it might have to be taken out because the hen was uncomfortable with the lump under her bum and pecked at it but, she settled down.