Digital Thermastat and Hydrometor

[lulu2]

So I am pretty sure my first hatching has been completely void of hatchlings. I am at the end of day 23 and I have had nothing.

Anyway, in reading several posts about failed hatches, humidity seems to be the cause.

My humidity levels have been reading at 60-70% Temp at 99.6 F. Could my digital thermastat/hydrometor be off??

I had good movement with candling up until I put the eggs in for lock down.
I haven't had a wiggle, peep or pip.

 

[chickee]

Quote:
So sorry

My first hatch of the year I used a digital indoor outdoor thermometer. Only four chicks hatched and their stomachs were too fat and they seemed too wet

I kept my humidity at 50% day 1 thru day 18 and 65 for lockdown. I suspected that my humidity was too high, so this last hatch I bought a reptile hygrometer at my local pet shop. It showed that the digital hygrometer was off by 10%! I had incubated the eggs at 60% humidity!!! I later read that if you don't put a fresh battery in them before putting them in the incubator that your readings can be way off

I candled the eggs that didn't hatch and saw that the chicks were floating about in fluid and had drowned

So the next hatch I used my reptile hygrometer, kept the humidity at 35-40% and had 9 out of 18 shipped eggs hatch

this time the eggs that didn't hatch lost too much moisture!

So now I have eggs incubating and I'm keeping the humidity at 45% and hoping for the best

Incubating eggs is a learning experience~ some people give their eggs until day 25~ Good luck!

 

[Peep_Show]

I had to ignore the digital portion of my Accu-Rite indoor/outdoor hi/lo thermometer... It seems -- and a lot of folks report this problem -- it doesn't register temps accurately above 95 degrees. I got it to hit 101 degrees by amping up my still-air bator only to find that the internal temps were really more like 106. Yeppers, fried that batch o' eggs right in the shell.

Now I use two liquid-filled thermometers to register the bottom and tops of the eggs.

The digital humidity portion seemed to be right on, though, with my non-digital humidity meter....maybe off by 1-2%.

The lesson is: It is better to be safe than sorry....have multiple temp/humidity gages for an accurate reading.

 

[The Wolf Queen]

I have a digital hydrometer/ thermometer and the thermometer is NEVER right. Its always too low or too high so I use one of these http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=616. If you get one it will be your best friend!
ETA: temp in a still air should be between 100 and 102 degrees, in moving air (or whatever you call it) it should be bewtween 99.6 and 100 degrees. In any bator, humidity should be between 35% and 45% before lockdown. During lockdown and hatching humidity should be between 75% and 78%. Hope this helps.

 

[lulu2]

Thank you all for your input. I really, really appreciate it.
I am so glad that this site is here!
Such a great resource.
I going down and picking up a reptile thermometer and hydrometor today. I did read how to calibrate the hydrometor.
I am going to give the eggs until tomorrow morning, just in case.
Then put the new set in and see what the difference is. It should be inlightening!
Thanks again!

 

[lulu2]

So today was day 25. I finally took the eggs out and opened them. Three were completey formed, not sure what happened? There was no sign of any attempt to pip. No extra fluid and they were not sticky. I checked the two digital hygromemters againts each other and they are 4% off. I am not sure what happened. I have another batch of eggs due on June 1st. If it happens again, I dont know what I will do.