December Hatch-A-Long 2014

[only1bgirl]

Anybody have some good advice, getting really frustrated with my incubators/thermometers & hygrometers.
I have 3 incubators, a Janoel 48, all digital with turner & fan. ( new this spring only my 3rd hatch in it.) A older Little Giant ~ still air with egg turner. And a brand new Little Giant 9300 that I purchased last week for hatching with a digital temp/hygrometer. I also have a seperate digital temp/hygrometer unit & I have 3 cheap thermoters. They all are saying different numbers. The 3 cheap thermoters I did the ice calibration check on them. All 3 read 32 degrees, so I thought I had something acurite to go by. Here's my dilema, I can place all three in the same incubator right next to each other and yet they all read a different temp. Plus they all read a different temp than the digital units on the incubators. I just don't know what number to go by, lockdown starts on some of my eggs tomorrow night. The eggs are looking great, live embryos in all. I'm just really concerned to move them into lockdown and not know if my hygrometer is way off. In past hatches have experienced chick drowning because of too much humidity and my last hatch I lost a couple to not enough humidity I think. They never made it out of the shell after internally pipping. Anybody have a suggestion?

I have this 9300 with a fan, same problems here. I'm going off the temperature and humidity readings from the thermometer I put inside it not the readings from the probe, it's nice to have them match but it's not always possible and depends where the probe is located. When it's empty again I'm going to try and hang the probe from the lid again. Do all three thermometers read the same sitting outside the incubator?

 

[Debs55]

Anybody have some good advice, getting really frustrated with my incubators/thermometers & hygrometers.
I have 3 incubators, a Janoel 48, all digital with turner & fan. ( new this spring only my 3rd hatch in it.) A older Little Giant ~ still air with egg turner. And a brand new Little Giant 9300 that I purchased last week for hatching with a digital temp/hygrometer. I also have a seperate digital temp/hygrometer unit & I have 3 cheap thermoters. They all are saying different numbers. The 3 cheap thermoters I did the ice calibration check on them. All 3 read 32 degrees, so I thought I had something acurite to go by. Here's my dilema, I can place all three in the same incubator right next to each other and yet they all read a different temp. Plus they all read a different temp than the digital units on the incubators. I just don't know what number to go by, lockdown starts on some of my eggs tomorrow night. The eggs are looking great, live embryos in all. I'm just really concerned to move them into lockdown and not know if my hygrometer is way off. In past hatches have experienced chick drowning because of too much humidity and my last hatch I lost a couple to not enough humidity I think. They never made it out of the shell after internally pipping. Anybody have a suggestion?

here is what I did. I got a meat thermometer at walmart. They can be easily calibrated with ice water or boiling water. then I put it in a water wiggler. plus my thermostat is calibrated. as long as both are in the same ball park thats what I go by. I don't trust my digital thermometers because the way they work is they take an air sample at a certain interval. If they all test at different times of course the temps will be different since your thermostat is cycling the heating element on and off

 

[ChickenLady2014]

I have this 9300 with a fan, same problems here. I'm going off the temperature and humidity readings from the thermometer I put inside it not the readings from the probe, it's nice to have them match but it's not always possible and depends where the probe is located. When it's empty again I'm going to try and hang the probe from the lid again. Do all three thermometers read the same sitting outside the incubator?

Hi Only1bgirl, thanks for responding. You know I'm not really certain if the Walmart thermometer read the same temp outside of the incubator. I'm only certain that the 3 of them read 32 degrees when I did the ice calibration check on them. I do have the probe taped to the side of the top lid with the probe tip about the height of of the top of eggs if they were in there.
All 3 manual thermometers are different readings. The digital probe reading at the side of the box its taped to, is reading the same as the one manual thermometers on the other side of the box. Guess I will go with their readings. Thank again for your help.

 

[robgray]

Help, day 23.... I made a whole, chick not moving, membrane was white bit then some blood leaked on the shell. Should the chick move if I touch it? I know I broke the rules but this is a shipped egg and terrible saddle air cell and should have hatched no?

 

[PD-Riverman]

Anybody have some good advice, getting really frustrated with my incubators/thermometers & hygrometers.
I have 3 incubators, a Janoel 48, all digital with turner & fan. ( new this spring only my 3rd hatch in it.) A older Little Giant ~ still air with egg turner. And a brand new Little Giant 9300 that I purchased last week for hatching with a digital temp/hygrometer. I also have a seperate digital temp/hygrometer unit & I have 3 cheap thermoters. They all are saying different numbers. The 3 cheap thermoters I did the ice calibration check on them. All 3 read 32 degrees, so I thought I had something acurite to go by. Here's my dilema, I can place all three in the same incubator right next to each other and yet they all read a different temp. Plus they all read a different temp than the digital units on the incubators. I just don't know what number to go by, lockdown starts on some of my eggs tomorrow night. The eggs are looking great, live embryos in all. I'm just really concerned to move them into lockdown and not know if my hygrometer is way off. In past hatches have experienced chick drowning because of too much humidity and my last hatch I lost a couple to not enough humidity I think. They never made it out of the shell after internally pipping. Anybody have a suggestion?

There might be a way to calibrate the walmarts digital thermometers that alot of us have---I never looked----What I did was simple----I put the several thermometers together in a room----give them all time to stabilize----then I chose the one in the middle reading as a the one to go by---I marked the others on a piece of tape stuck on it with a + or - amout of tenths/degree's to make it equal the one I was going by---now I used the one in the "middle" to hatch some eggs---they mainly hatched late on day 20--early day 21 So "I" was Good. Now if they had of hatched earlier or later I would have chosen one of the other thermometer as "the one to go by"-----meaning if all my eggs mainly hatched on day 20---meaning the temp was probably to hot---I would have used the thermometer that read a little higher as the "one to go by"--------the other way if they had of hatched a little late. NOW I used a permanant marker to mark on each thermometer---+ or - a few tenths/degree-----Now I use the "one to go by" as the one to Mark all the rest----and I have ordered several more thermometers from Incubator warehouse---yep they all read a little different----its OK---NO WORRY because I mark them with the "one to go by" and all my eggs hatch on time---so if my "one to go by" is wrong---I do not care as long as my eggs hatch on time--LOL. Hope this Redneck calibration can help some of you to STOP worring about it!!!!

 

[only1bgirl]

I like your reasoning!
@PD-Riverman

 

[only1bgirl]

I haven't tried this but I want to, someone posted how they bought 4 fish tank thermometers, she looked at all of them in the store and bought the four that had the same reading while in the store. I'm Also using a digital thermometer/hydrometer and I have my meat thermometer that I pushed through the side about top of egg height, it's pegged at 100. I like the water wiggle idea to! I'm really hoping these eggs hatch they flew 3000 miles via USPS and one entire corner of the box was caved in. I'm also contemplating taking that probe off the plastic sheet, blowing an egg out putting probe through it and filling the egg with silicone. You're right Chickenlady the tape does not hold up with the humidity.

 

[only1bgirl]

Help, day 23.... I made a whole, chick not moving, membrane was white bit then some blood leaked on the shell. Should the chick move if I touch it? I know I broke the rules but this is a shipped egg and terrible saddle air cell and should have hatched no?

They should of hatched but sometimes they're late. Bleeding is bad. There are tons of posts on here about assisted hatching. I would watch, listen and wait a bit. Assisting should be the last resort. When I check eggs a couple of days after the majority have hatched I start by breaching the shell at the top with a small hole a quick tap with a bottle opener, then take a wet Qtip to wet the membrane on top of chick and to see if there's any movement before I toss the egg. I have not found any living chicks doing this but it gives me peace of mind knowing for sure I'm not throwing away live chicks.

 

[Renee572]

Well I tested my hygrometer yesterday and found it to be at least 2 to 3% lower than what it should be so the whole time it was reading 65% during lockdown it was actually probably only 62%. Glad I know now and that means I will make sure to have it above 65% during lockdown to compensate. I feel a bit more prepared for my next go at hatching! Now to figure out if my temp is correct!

 

[PD-Riverman]

Well I tested my hygrometer yesterday and found it to be at least 2 to 3% lower than what it should be so the whole time it was reading 65% during lockdown it was actually probably only 62%. Glad I know now and that means I will make sure to have it above 65% during lockdown to compensate. I feel a bit more prepared for my next go at hatching! Now to figure out if my temp is correct!

Well can you put it in your arm pit to see if it reads 98.6??????????????????LOL