Fine tuning humidity and temp

[marcuscarr]

My incubator has been running for 24 hours now and here are the readings I get.

ambient temp - 101.3
Temp in wiggler - 101.1
Humidity - 68%

This has been holding for many hours now.

I have not drilled the air holes in the incubator yet. I plan to drill two 1/2" intake holes on the fan side of the incubator, toward the bottom, before the fan...to bring in fresh air in and two more 1/2" holes on the far side of the incubator, near the top to exhaust.

I believe doing this will decrease my temp and humidity slightly, bringing me into range.

I think my target temp is 99.5 in the wiggler and a humidity of 45-50% from day 1-18. On day 18, I remove the turner, place the eggs on hardware cloth in a pan and increase the humidity to 70%.

Am I right on?

 

[jab91864]

Looks awesome, sounds good.

Now if it were me, I would drill a couple more holes just in case there comes a time you need EXTRA because the humidity is trying to spike. It can happen.

Better safe than sorry and if you keep them plugged no harm done, but it will suck if you decide after eggs are in it you need more holes...

Julie

 

[marcuscarr]

I drilled four 1/2" holes in the back of the unit. The ones on the left are the intake and are near the fan. The ones on the right are higher up and on the opposite side of the unit. I used popsicle sticks and a screw so I could vary the amount they are open.

I also got the hole for viewing cut in the top and the dinner plate siliconed in.

Here are the pics.

 

[firechicken]

Looks real good. Did you get the temps to drop after drilling the holes?

 

[skeeter]

wow,looks great good job,whers is the water pan cant see it,
what ar the diminsions,is the bulb in from the bottom?
when you going to put eggs in keep us informed

 

[fallenweeble]

THAT is impressive!
it must be nice to be able to construct things as you "see" them and also "need" them to be!
i'm an artist and so i can do the "see" but not so much the "need." (i can do purdy things but not useful things!)
it's very cool!

 

[marcuscarr]

I did get the temps to drop, but opening and closing the holes didn't make a difference for the temps. I adjusted the temp sensor to bring them down.

Here is a better picture of the fan/light assembly. Since it is all built as a single unit, I can reach in an pull it out in about a second.

 

[jab91864]

Excellent job !!!

Julie

 

[skeeter]

where did you get that light socket,looks like a nice one,

yes I have bator envey

 

[marcuscarr]

The light bulb base is a ceramic one. They are intended for higher wattage bulbs and are available at most hardware stores. =]

Throughout today I recorded the temp in the wiggler and the humidity each time I walked past the bator...here are the results

TEMP HUM
99.7 44
99.4 44
99.0 44 Closed the air intake vent slightly
99.4 49 Opened the air intake vent less than slightly =]
99.0 45
99.2 44
99.2 45 Moved the temp regulator very very very slightly toward the hot side
99.4 44
99.5 44
99.7 44
99.2 44

I think this is close enough to do the job. There appears to be a swing from 99.2-99.7.

Tomorrow I am going to set a second dish of water in the bator and leave everything else the same. I am hoping that the temp stays stable and the humidity jumps to 60-70%. I know there will be a humidity spike as soon as the chicks hatch and start drying. If that only spikes it 5-10%, my day 18-21 humidity will be 65-80%.

Everything is going well so far.

I will post again after the second dish test.

Marcus