Calling help: update humidity ?

[tiki244]

I made my second incubator and it was holding a good temp for over a week. Its styrofoam with two fans and light bulb and those disk thermometers. I put eggs in 4 days ago. Between 8am and noon the temp went from 100 to 148

I cracked open one egg and it had developed up to that point. Should I throw the eggs? What happened to the thermostat, it wont turn the light bulb off?

Thanks for any suggestions
Kris

 

[tiki244]

Update: I opened the incubator and aired it out till temp got back down and when I closed it just now the thermostat is again working. This is strange.

Info: I had been putting towel over the back so the cold air wouldnt get to the thermostat and turn it on unecesarily and also when it was really hot I turned the disk cooler and cooler and it still wouldnt turn light bulb off.

 

[silkiechicken]

If it hasn't been hot that long, take the eggs out and set them in a carton. THey can stay on the table for about 24 hours at room T and still make it although your hatch rate will decrease some.

Doubble check the thermometers and then replace those wafers. The wafer thermostats often die, so it is best to have one on hand just in case. Switch to the new ones and take that 24 hour window to get the temps back at the right spot, make sure the wires are hooked up and then put the eggs back in.


Edit: check the wiring if it works again. Sometimes they can lose contact and get loose.

 

[tiki244]

OK will do- but do you know where they sell thermostat wafers ? I meen on short notice


Now I have another question; I am wondering if I should put the electronic water heater thermostat back in, it was in my first incubator and I just got a five degrree ranges on it but the incubator was poorly made, I wonder if I could try it in this one and get better results?

 

[seagullplayer]

I know a local feed store that sells the wafer type for about $12.

Make a few phone calls.

 

[sgray136]

Tiki, I spent more than a week tweeking my home made bator using the hotwater tank thermostat as sugested by Miss Prissy. I had one temp spike but that was caused by my fooling around with the setting after I had it set and stable. I was warned off of the wager type as too inconsistant in regulating the temp. I think if I was going to change out the thermostat I would use a digital designed for an incubator but so far I am happy with the one I have. Before you panic you may want to make sure that the fault was the thermostat and not some other influence.

 

[hart31]

Think carefully about other influences. When we got really cold last week I started getting spikes in the middle of the night. I finally figured out that my DW closes the door between the entry where the bator is and the kitchen at night. The intry has electric baseboards controled by a thermostat in the room and also a cast iron radiator which is part of the main household heating system controlled by a different thermostat. The baseboards were keeping the room at at 70 with no problem but then the thermostat in the living room would call for heat and the cast iron radiator in the entry would also kick in. During the day with the kitchen door open it didn't matter but with the doo shut the room temp would go way up.

 

[tiki244]

Thanks everybody! Sgray arent you expecting chicks soon?

 

[tiki244]

Well now I was reading another post and was wondering if my incubator had run out of water could it spike to 148 degrees?

 

[hart31]

I doubt if the lack of cooling evaporation could make that much difference. My home made bator seems to jump about 1 to 1.5 or maybe even 2 degrees when it runs out of water.

With water in the pan it sits at 99.5 and 40 to 50% humidity now that I've got the room humidty up. When the pan goes dry it will go to about 101 or 101.3 and 30%. I can't see the pan. I have window screen under the eggs and it is just too dark under the screen where the pan sits. After this batch of eggs is done I'll probably add another tiny 12v light under the eggs and change to a 1/4 inch screen or hardware cloth. I have a side marker light from an old car connected to the 12v power source that runs my pc fan. this provides light inside the incubator with very little heat.