Egg Incubation Conditons

[HamonyFarmHens]

Hello everybody,
So i have a homemade incubator made of styrofoam, and i'm currently using a 15 watt bulb. The temperature has been in the range of 100-103*F, and the humidity range is 46-53%. It changes throughout the day, but by looking at other threads it seems like these are all safe temperatures and humidity... But will my eggs still develop even if the temperature and humidity aren't the same throughout the day?

 

[Ducklvr]

A lot of people have temperature drops and spikes throughout the day, (especially from opening the incubator, and stuff like that.)
You'll probably just have a lower hatch rate than a lot of people will be able to get.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Maybe. Probably. Do you have a forced air or a still air? If a still air, where are you taking the temperature reading? In a forced air that is a bit warm. In a still air it depends on the height relative to the eggs you are taking it.

What you are measuring is probably air temperature. The egg is denser than air and does not heat up or cool off nearly as fast as the air so the egg temperature does not vary as much as your temperature reading unless it stays at that temperature extreme long enough to heat up or cool off the egg. The egg is probably seeing closer to an average but that depends on how often it cycles.

You might try putting your thermostat closer to the heat source. That way it should cycle more often and help cut down on the temperature extremes.

 

[HamonyFarmHens]

I have a still air and I think it must be ok conditions because I candled the egg yesterday (day 8) and saw a black dot and some veins! I've had this incubator for a loooonng time and I've never gotten this far into development. This I the only case where I haven't candled the eggs everyday (which is what I did previously) would candling affect hatch rates too?? I'm not planning to candle again until day 18 because clearly it's worked out pretty well (developing chick yay!!) should I just ditch candling all together??