Help with setting up incubator for the first time

[TimColeman]

Hi,

I'm a total newbie to this hatching lark but I've done a fair bit of reading but I can't seem to figure this out. I have bought a relatively cheap incubator and I'm not sure which reading to trust. The reading from the incubator or the reading from my hygrometer/thermometer.

I had the probe inside the incubator at first but I since discovered the probe does not measure humidity, only the unit itself does that. I have put the unit in the incubator after a thorough clean and I seem to be hitting about 53% humidity but the temperature readings are still roughly 3 degrees out. Does anyone have any experience with a similar combo of equipment or can you offer any advice on which reading to work from?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TimColeman]

Does anyone have any ideas which reading I should be working from. I'm a bit confused?

 

[Percheron chick]

Start by calibrating your thermometers first. There should be instructions in the manual but typically you just stick the probe in an icebath and it needs to read 32*/0*. There should be a way to reset it. Thermometers built into the incubator tend to be rather unreliable

 

[TimColeman]

Start by calibrating your thermometers first. There should be instructions in the manual but typically you just stick the probe in an icebath and it needs to read 32*/0*. There should be a way to reset it. Thermometers built into the incubator tend to be rather unreliable

Hiya, thanks for the tip. I reset the thermometer at room temperature before I put it to use, so hopefully it's calibrated I don't have any instructions for it as it was a shed find at my dad's house.

I went to the pet store earlier to buy some dog food and picked up a better hygrometer. I then returned to using the thermometer in probe mode. So now I have both the thermometer and the hygrometer external to the incubator. I have managed to get both of them to read what I believe to be the magic numbers; temperature at 37.5 degrees celsius and humidity at 55%. The built in thermostat on the incubator has to be set at 38.1 to achieve this.

I'm inclined to take the reading from my external thermometer over the built in one, what do you think? Is the 0.6 degree difference going to be a problem later on down the line?

 

[fishin_dad]

Any suggestions on a hygrometer/thermometer that is incubator safe? I want to have more than one reference point during my first hatch.