First incubation coming soon, I am nervous! :D

[Oldegarlicshnapp]

I really reccomend having the temp at 101 F and humidity from 45-55 for the 18 days. Then 101 F and 60-70 humidity for the last three.
Too much humidity on the beginning totally wrecked an expensive batch of mine, which was my first batch. It’ll malposition them, kill ‘em, etc. Best of luck!

 

[VlkStinu]

I really reccomend having the temp at 101 F and humidity from 45-55 for the 18 days. Then 101 F and 60-70 humidity for the last three.
Too much humidity on the beginning totally wrecked an expensive batch of mine, which was my first batch. It’ll malposition them, kill ‘em, etc. Best of luck!

101 F, really? That's much higher than I've seen in other recommendations and guides - it's recommended to be 99,5 F in most cases. But that kinda gives me hope that if by any chance my calibration will not be 100% precise, it still doesn't have to mean anything bad.

 

[Oldegarlicshnapp]

I’m not a pro, but it gave me good results and they all hatched on time. My biggest concern is with the air cell, and that heat gave me a steady air cell growth

 

[VlkStinu]

Alright, I am having the medical gallium thermometer in the incubator as I write this message and the incubator's thermometer seems to be precisely set! So no calibration is needed after all. I am quite relieved, after yesterdays' many failed attempts to get a proper reading! The incubator's thermostat tends to keep the temperature often at 37,7 °C even though the desired temp is set to 37,5 - it kinda fluctuates between 37,5, 37,6, and 37,7 as the incubator fires up the heating and then is waiting for a slight cooldown back to 37,5 and then it repeats the same cycle. But I hope that shouldn't be a problem. I can imagine the temperature in natural settings also tends to fluctuate a bit.

 

[VlkStinu]

So the temperature seems to be at 37,7 most of the time, according to the gallium thermometer. The incubator shows 37,7 as well, sometimes drops to 37,5. So I am wondering if I should calibrate it for those 0,2 lower or just leave it the way it is? The thing is that the incubator is calibrated because it does show 37,7 often, which matches with the gallium thermometer.

 

[VlkStinu]

Interesting, I've tried to calibrate it by setting a 0,3 difference and the gallium thermometer is still showing a stable 37,65-37,7 value.

 

[VlkStinu]

So I started incubating and found out that a) for some reason, I am unable to raise the temperature to the desired value, it just keeps floating around 35% despite the water tanks being full of water and b) a couple of the eggs are too big and they don't fit in a rack - I mean they fit, but the lid cannot be closed properly. That really took me by surprise. What I did is that I laid the eggs that are too big on the side in between the automatic racks, so they will get somewhat turned. That's the best I could come up with. I sealed some of the gaps under the lid with duct tape to see if it will increase the humidity inside. I am a bit worried that perhaps the two fans in the incubator are too strong and they are just drying the air too much. When I turned the incubator off before I placed the eggs and turned it on again, the humidity was 59% before it started going down again after turning it on. I am really bummed out. I thought I had everything lined up perfectly... I don't know what to do now really. I guess I will just wait and see what happens.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

What does your incubator humidity run without any water at all? Depending on where you live, altitude and ambient humidity in your area, dry incubating may be a good solution.
Sorry I did not read through your whole thread, but do you have a independent salt tested hygrometer?
Also how long did you run the incubator before adding the eggs? What was the humidity running then?

 

[VlkStinu]

What does your incubator humidity run without any water at all? Depending on where you live, altitude and ambient humidity in your area, dry incubating may be a good solution.
Sorry I did not read through your whole thread, but do you have a independent salt tested hygrometer?
Also how long did you run the incubator before adding the eggs? What was the humidity running then?

If I remember correctly, the humidity without water was about 23%. The incubator is now running for an hour and a half and there is a condensation build-up on the lid. I find it hard to believe that the humidity is just 37% as the display suggests. This looks definitely more to me. What do you think? I've duct-taped the sides of the lid to close off the gaps that were there, so I think that might have contributed to that. I have a forced-air incubator. I have a non-digital hygrometer that I could place in the incubator to double-check the humidity. Do you think that would be a good idea?

By the way, this is an excerpt from the manual - I don't really understand what they mean by that, but maybe it can help explain things?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

If I remember correctly, the humidity without water was about 23%. The incubator is now running for an hour and a half and there is a condensation build-up on the lid. I find it hard to believe that the humidity is just 37% as the display suggests. This looks definitely more to me. What do you think? I've duct-taped the sides of the lid to close off the gaps that were there, so I think that might have contributed to that. I have a forced-air incubator. I have a non-digital hygrometer that I could place in the incubator to double-check the humidity. Do you think that would be a good idea?

By the way, this is an excerpt from the manual - I don't really understand what they mean by that, but maybe it can help explain things?

View attachment 3054708

You don’t want to close off the gaps. The eggs need oxygen. Honestly if it were me I would just dry incubate them, but that’s me. You will find as many opinions on how to incubate eggs as there are members on BYC. You need to use an independent salt tested hygrometer. Look up how to salt test it is easy to do.