My temperatures have been pretty steady at 100 to 101 through the first 6 days of incubation. I candled all 9 eggs last night and I could see embryos and blood vessels in 3 of the lighter eggs. I couldn't see much in the other eggs because they are dark. Today, I checked the bator and the temp was 99.9. I sat down at the computer for about 30 mins and when I came back the temp was at 107.3 It was not that high for long and I have never seen it go over 103 before. This is a home made bator that has been working well. Will a short spike that high kill off the chicks or is there a chance they will be ok?
I THINK there's a good chance they'll be ok. Wait for others who have more experience with incubators though. I moslty depend on broodies, and friends with bators.
How short a time was it? You may lose some with temperatures that high, but you might also be just fine. Try candling in a few more days. You should be able to tell if you still have embryos or not.
I once kept a good temp for a few weeks and checked them a few times a day and flipped the eggs myself. One day I came home from work, went straight to the incubator and it was at 120 F. I kept them in after cooling them off a bit and got the temp back to 99.6 and I still had a hatch. It was an egg on the edge. No telling how long the eggs were cooking either. I keep a little incubator, which I plan on using to create a much bigger one, but I prefer to have a few hens from breeds known to brood. They are much better than we are. No worries about power outages, high temps, forgetting to turn. If you only went about 30 mins or so to the computer, I am sure your eggs are fine. It didn't just jump to 107. It had to build up to that, slowly.
Thanks for the reassurance. I really hope they are OK. I did a little reading and some people mentioned that the accurite thermos can falsely jump up or down. I think that may have been what happened here. I am using two normal thermometers plus an accurite. I saw the digital output on the accurite and immediately opened the incubator lid to cool things off. In my haste, I never checked the other thermos. I have a feeling it wasn't REALLY that high. It has not gotten over 101 since I opened the lid and I didn't adjust the temp or anything.
