Did I fry them?!?

[williamsl77]

Set Eggs at 4am. Temp fine at 5am. Temp at 6am was 109. Quickly cooled them off and readjusted. Now 99. Did I fry them? They are all silkie eggs.

 

[Melissa Rose]

Quote:
Not neccessarily

It takes longer than an hour for the eggs to heat up internally. If your temp spike had been longer I would think other wise but for just a short time it should be OK. Sometimes when you first set eggs the incubator temps will flucuate untill the eggs themselves reach the right temp

 

[williamsl77]

Anyone ever do this and have survivors? I thought checking hourly would be ok... I'm sure this is newbie mistake #1.

 

[BamaSilkies]

What kind of Bator do you? LG? I dont use them only broodies but from what I have read they have bad reputation for that. One person said that they use 3 aquarium therms in theirs and havent had any more problems.

 

[GreenGoddess]

One of my last hatches last year, my 12 yr old son was messing with the thermostat and "thought" he had turned it back down... When I caught it, the temp in the bator was 114.. I wasn't sure how long they had been that way but I turned it down and kept the incubator open for a few minutes to let the heat out... It took me several hours to get the temp back to normal... I did lost a few chicks in that hatch (he also opened it on day 21 with many of them pipped but that's another story!) but only 2 or 3... I did have to help a few of them because they were shrink wrapped but that was due to him opening it and not the temp issue...

And yes, I told him if he ever touched my incubator again I would.... well..... I won't say what I said.... I was livid!! LOL

Goddess

 

[williamsl77]

Hovabator 1602. This is my first attempt at hatching. Learning. Probably shouldn't try fancy eggs the first time around...

 

[ncfarm2012]

You should be ok. *praying* We done that to some guinea eggs that we had. Every newbie does this it seems!

 

[rancher hicks]

If I have not sent you the article from PP mag, on hatching, pm me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you.

As for the 109. I think rarely are the temps exact in these things. Though I've only used a 1602N twice and neither time things went well. But that was before I read this article and realized some of the mistakes I was making.

If you are early in the hatch, then candle and see what's going on. If you are past day 15 or so , you might as well see things through to the end.

You don't say whether your using a digital or not. These are better IMO.

Temps of 100.0* - 101.5* should not be a worry. In fact IMO are best. 99.5* seems to me to just be a guideline as are the degrees of humidity. Even a hen can't hold her temp. even through to the end. She gets off once a day and surely that doesn't hurt.

IMO it's the health of the eggs, that is the reason for some losses.

Take care and keep us posted,

Rancher

 

[Jeffross1968]

Sometimes it takes a while for all the inner workings to heat up to the desired temperature. Once it does and stop soaking up heat, it can spike quickly. Best thing to do is heat everything up inside for a bit before adding eggs, then once the eggs are set let it go for hours before playing with the settings at all.

 

[anderson8505]

I had this happen too, but mine was for much longer than a few minutes.

When I did finally give up on them they were actually cooked inside on the part that was closest to the heat source. This was a homemade style incubator.

Good luck, if it wasn't too long, I bet you'll be okay.

Remember to factor in any temperature spikes outside of the incubator-- that was my issue it got too hot in the room they were in.