First time,temperature help!

[kada6305]

I made a homemade incubator. We have a styrofoam container, 20 watt lightbulb, thermometer that does temp and humidity. I have added 6 holes (big enough for my ring finger to fit through) Temp was 104* after I added the last 2 holes it is down to 99* humidity is 44%. Is that okay? I plan on running it for 48hours of regulated temp and hmidy before adding eggs, We are just doing chicken eggs, about 3 or 4 of them. We live on a farm and want to replace our rooster (he's become aggressive) but need a rooster for that and want to add some hens to our flock. The light bub in on the other side of the incubator I would say about 8 inches away, and 5 inches above. No forced ar.

 

[kada6305]

I should mention the eggs are NOT in the incubator yet, I haven't even collected them yet. I want to get the incubator regulated for a few days first. I figure I'll collect them in the morning then add them to the bator .

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Never count your chicks (or new roosters for that matter) before they hatch. Lots of things can and do go wrong when hatching out biddies. Why not set 12 - 15 eggs to give yourself a better selection and (IMHO) eggs hatch better if there are 10-15 baby chicks peeping inside the shell. This gets (again imho) all the biddies pecking order juices flowing and helps spur the clutch to make a greater effort to pip and hatch. The surplus chicks if there are any can be sold or traded on Cragslist.org

I expect that your new incubator is the still air type. In that case you should be sure that the temperature you are measuring is taken at the top EDGE of the egg while the egg is on its side.

It's been ages since I've used a still air incubator, but I think that 99 point zero degrees (depending on how you measured the temp) may be a dab low for your type of incubator. Remember in a still air incubator hot air rises to the top and the colder air falls to the bottom. Your eggs need to be kept in the Goldie Locks zone.

 

[AmericanMom]

Never count your chicks (or new roosters for that matter) before they hatch. Lots of things can and do go wrong when hatching out biddies. Why not set 12 - 15 eggs to give yourself a better selection and (IMHO) eggs hatch better if there are 10-15 baby chicks peeping inside the shell. This gets (again imho) all the biddies pecking order juices flowing and helps spur the clutch to make a greater effort to pip and hatch. The surplus chicks if there are any can be sold or traded on Cragslist.org

I expect that your new incubator is the still air type. In that case you should be sure that the temperature you are measuring is taken at the top EDGE of the egg while the egg is on its side.

It's been ages since I've used a still air incubator, but I think that 99 point zero degrees (depending on how you measured the temp) may be a dab low for your type of incubator. Remember in a still air incubator hot air rises to the top and the colder air falls to the bottom. Your eggs need to be kept in the Goldie Locks zone.

Your right on, for still air I keep mine between 101-102...

 

[kada6305]

After setting for a bit it was reading and steadying at 104* But I suspect that is a tad too high, I have the thermometer laying flat, so measurements taken as same height as the eggs would be. And yes it is a still air incubator, Unfortunately we don't have anyone interested in chicks this time of year so we are limited to what we can do with the left overs and we Don't have room for the extra 10 chickens.

 

[kada6305]

Okay so I covered some holes and where the top of the eggs would be is readying 40% humidity and 102* F. I am so paranoid I am going to bake the babies. I am going to try to keep it regulated at those readings for the next 48hrs.

 

[AmericanMom]

TTy to regulate it at 101, then if you have a minor temp.spike and it goes up to 102.8 it wont be so bad.... I shoot for 101 typically

 

[kada6305]

TTy to regulate it at 101, then if you have a minor temp.spike and it goes up to 102.8 it wont be so bad.... I shoot for 101 typically

I'l try covering up another hole and hopefully that will bring it down to 101.

 

[kada6305]

TTy to regulate it at 101, then if you have a minor temp.spike and it goes up to 102.8 it wont be so bad.... I shoot for 101 typically

I added another hole. We are regulating at 99-100* I am going to add 1 more and hopefully it'll get me to 101

 

[AmericanMom]

I added another hole. We are regulating at 99-100* I am going to add 1 more and hopefully it'll get me to 101