I have made a styrofoam incubator (on Monday) and got it to temp. It has been stable since yesterday evening so I put eggs in lunchtime today. It has not yet got up to temp and is sitting at around 90 It has been untouched now for about 9 hours. Should I be trying to increase the temperature yet or give it over night to see if it settles? Any advice much appreciated
I'm sorry I have never used an incubator. Other responders should be coming along and may have experience with them. People often make their own. Have you tried going to the Raising Backyard chickens forum ? Menu will open to the right and should have a thread called Incubation and hatching. That may be of help to you.
Hi Glad you could join the flock! Have you added a fan to the incubator? If you have not added a fan where is your thermometer placed in the incubator? With still air (no fan) the thermometer needs to be placed at the top of the eggs. In a fan incubator the thermometer can be any where as the air/heat should be evenly distributed. Good luck and enjoy BYC
Welcome! I'm glad you joined our BYC "flock"! First, I would make sure that the therometer is actually reading the correct temperature. If possible, put another one in and see if it reads the same. If the temperature is still low, I'd try to raise it.
Thank you for the replies. I am on way home to chk temp with a thermometer I can actually put probe between eggs. It was a little higher in temp this morning at about 94 so still looking low but when I turned the eggs this morning they felt like a nice temp. This is my first time but they felt as I would expect an incubating egg should feel. I will keep everyone posted
Now I have a better thermometer I can see more what is going on. It was very low for the first 24 hours. I now have it semi stable. I say semi because I have it flexing between around 98-100. My house temps are so whack it is unreal. So instead of changing how full the bulb is on (I have a dimmer switch) I am adjusting things like opening my bedroom blinds and dropping the styrofoam flap that is over glass window to cool it down. Let's see how she goes. I'm keeping everything crossed for these presious little ones.