So I have been complaining of chicks hatching late, dying before pipping, low hatch rates, etc. Finally it dawns on me today that maybe the digital readout or the thermostat in the $500 Brinsea Advance EX is wrong. So I put a thermometer with a probe in the Brinsea and it reads 96.3! Thinking it is probably the cheap thermometer that is wrong, I decide to double check. So I put it in the $100 Brinsea ECO and it reads 99.3! So I take it out and back downstairs and check the Brinsea Advance again and the thermometer drops to 96.3 again! So my eggs have been incubating three degrees lower than they should be! No wonder they are late and I have poor hatch rates.
I cranked the temp of the Brinsea Advance up 102 degrees and now the probe thermometer reads a proper 99.5! I have a call and an email out to Brinsea to see how I get the problem fixed.
I feel like such an idiot. Both incubators have been rock steady at 99.5 so it just never dawned on me to verify that until today. At least my 12 of my precious Icelandic eggs have been basking in the $100 Brinsea at 99.5 degrees. I have been using it as a back-up while hatching in the Advance EX. I hope they have been at the proper temp long enough to make it to hatch.
So be smarter than I was and verify that 99.5 on the digital read-out means 99.5 degrees in the incubator.
Mary
I cranked the temp of the Brinsea Advance up 102 degrees and now the probe thermometer reads a proper 99.5! I have a call and an email out to Brinsea to see how I get the problem fixed.
I feel like such an idiot. Both incubators have been rock steady at 99.5 so it just never dawned on me to verify that until today. At least my 12 of my precious Icelandic eggs have been basking in the $100 Brinsea at 99.5 degrees. I have been using it as a back-up while hatching in the Advance EX. I hope they have been at the proper temp long enough to make it to hatch.
So be smarter than I was and verify that 99.5 on the digital read-out means 99.5 degrees in the incubator.
Mary
