First timer temp and humidity question

[Stormimay]

Hi all! Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I am a first timer at everything here. This past Tuesday I got 24 guinea eggs and placed them into my still air incubator. It had been set up the day before and the thermometer showed that it was maintaining a temperature between 96 degrees and 101 degrees pretty steadily. I couldn't get it anymore stable than that. I have been adding water every day and turning the eggs 3 times a day, and every time I do that the temp drops about 5 degrees or so. This worried me but I was told it should be alright. I didn't like the cheap thermometer and that I couldn't see the humidity level, so today, the fifth day of having eggs, I bought an "indoor comfort monitor." Imagine my horror when I put it in and saw it measure a temperature of only 86 degrees. The old thermometer still said 99. Now my new one says it is 99 degrees (I turn the incubator up) and my old one (I left it in to compare, I'll take it out in a minute) says it is 112 degrees. So my eggs have been under heated this whole time. Are they dead? Are they fine and I just need to start the clock over? The humidity is about 74%, which is probably what it has been pretty steadily. I feel so stupid and frustrated. Please advise. Thank you!

 

[ChickenLegs13]

How do you know the new one is accurate and you're not overcooking the eggs? If the 88* one is accurate they should be developing, albeit a little slowly.

 

[Stormimay]

The new thermometer is much higher quality...great. I have to get a third one now. Assuming the third one agrees with my second one, how are my eggs?

 

[ChickenLegs13]

LOL! Search & find a thread about verifing & calibrating thernometers before you drive yourself crazy.

 

[blucoondawg]

You don't have to go nuts over whether or not the thermometer is right. I say if you bought a decent thermometer it is more likely to be right than the one on a styro bator, those are notorious for being wrong. Not all thermometers can be calibrated in fact many cannot. I don't use digital thermometers I go with bulb type and compared it at the store with the 15 others hanging there and picked one that was consistent with many of the others and avoided the ones that read differently. I would go with the one you have and see how your hatch goes, if you have an early hatch is running a bit warm, late hatch it's running a bit cool. Buying more thermometers and leaving them around your incubator will possibly make you more uncertain as those still airs have a reputation for having hot and cold spots so they will likely have different readings anyways.