Fluctuating incubator with good eggs ??????

[sgt_dane]

My incubator has been fluctuating bad, i havnt taken the eggs out because ive been to busy.. by fluctuating bad, i mean itll stay 94-95 degrees for a few days, then up to above 100 up to 104 for a while, then all over the place.. i have 71 eggs in there and all but 5 of them are good! How is this even possible??? What should i do to keep them growing at this point? My incubator thermostat messed up and isnt keeping a steady temp now, i dont have another one, i dont know what to do. any ideas??? Ive got melanistic pheasants, bob white quails and mille fluer D'uccles..

 

[SweetMotherOfMars]

Keep an eye on your humidity. Depending on how far you are from lockdown you can keep it pretty much anywhere between 30 and 50... but having it fluctuate causes the temperatures to fluctuate.

Maybe the best thing you can do is add some thermal mass to the incubator. A sealed water bottle, or something larger if there is room, will help buffer some of those temperature swings. If you had a decent sized cobble you could slip it into a zip bag and use that... the bigger the better.

Also check that the incubator isn't in direct sun part of the day, or near heating/cooling vents.

That's all I can think of tonight. Best of luck, and let us know what incubator you have. Mine's a home'bator, so I'm not really any help with specific models, but I bet you someone out there is!

 

[Kedreeva]

I agree with sweet, see if you can find some smooth stones (clean them well) to put inside or a closed water bottle. This will help your temperature stay steady; the rocks will give off heat when your bator starts to cool and will act as a heat sink when it starts to heat up.

I also agree, make sure that your incubator is someplace with stable temps, especially if it's a smaller one. Someplace where the sun won't warm it and drafts won't cool it.

 

[sgt_dane]

Problem is that its a forced air incubator, with a large fan at the bottom, small one at the top, and a 225 watt bulb in the middle with the eggs above that. It hatched my last clutch at 60% hatch rate and my thermostat burned up. I changed the thermostat and now its fluctuating everywhere.. i think im going to go buy an incubator this friday for emergencies or something.. Or build an insulated box incubator tonight to put them in.. Man i wish my incubator would just hold the temp. Its a home made cabinet incubator. I didnt even have moisture in there and it was at 35%.. its in there now, maybe thatll help... Ill try to water bottle but the problem with it being in the set up its in, anything of any size will disrupt the air movement and give me cold spots.. its touchy. need to start over i think.. lol. well thank you very much.

Im leaving them in there today, the temps been fluctuating for the last (2 weeks maybe???) so i think theyll survive one more day. gotta goto work.