Homemade Incubator - Going well until... heat peaked up to 104!! 9 hours since the last turn!

[The Renaissance Woman]

Welcome to BYC. The viability of the eggs will be determined by how long they were hot. In a couple of days you will be able to tell whether or not they are still developing.

The last time they were turned was at 6 pm. The temperature was fine. I was to turn them at midnight... but slept in... Woke at 3 am jolted out of bed to find the temp went up to 104 at one end of the incubator. The other end went up to 102. So in that 104 area, some eggs may be affected. The temperature has been stable for six hours at a time staying around 102, so I estimate those eggs could have had 104 from 1 - 3 hours.

 

[The Renaissance Woman]

Ok, that's hopeful! How many eggs were you incubating at the time?

 

[The Renaissance Woman]

Just 1.

Oh, you only had one egg in your incubator? Or was that all that survived?

 

[N F C]

I see you've posted in the Incubating & Hatching forum...hope you get the advice you're looking for. Best wishes!

 

[M-H-Fielding]

I'm new to hatching chicks. I made my own homemade incubator. I tested it for many days prior to ensure I can get a stable temperature. I have a 60-watt bulb, with a small fan placed in the incubator, along with a pan for water. The eggs are placed on a rack sitting in a plastic container with water at the bottom (the rack has legs). I have two temperature gauges with humidity at both ends. Each end has been 100 and 102F with around 27- 31% humidity. I would turn and rotate the eggs every 4 hours from one end to the other. Yesterday, day 3, I began turning the eggs every 6 hours. I have my alarms set on my phone to alert me of the times to check and turn the eggs. It went off at midnight... I fell back asleep... I woke at 3:00 am... jolted out of bed and saw the temperature was 104 at the end closest to the bulb and the other end was 102! The reservoir was dry. I don't know how long 104 temp was there but it had been 9 hours since the last turn at this point! I let the heat out and rotated the eggs. I'm going to continue the process, but this makes me wonder now how it'll turn out or if it destroyed the eggs. My only hope is that the eggs on the other end 102f hopefully will be ok.
Now I'm thinking about the lockdown time. WHAT IF the temperature spikes up over 102 in lockdown??? I know lifting the lid can shrink wrap the chicks and kill them, so how do I deal with the situation if the temperature were to spike? How can I assure I have enough moisture in the incubator during the lockdown? I already did a test run before the eggs were in there by rolling up some moist small towels to see how the humidity is affected. What do I do if the temperature cools down during lockdown because of the humidity? Is that a major concern? MOSTLY how would I deal with the temperature spiking during the lockdown? Would I just let that heat out?

I understand that the humidity will rise as the chicks hatch if mine even hatch, but what about the temperature?
Has anyone experienced raised temperatures and still had a hatch?

Welcome to BYC!

 

[HKG]

Oh, you only had one egg in your incubator? Or was that all that survived?

I only had one in the incubator, it was a project so I only did one incase it didn't hatch.

 

[007Sean]

Howdy Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
Enjoy your time here!

 

[swampfox440]

Hi, Welcome to BYC! good luck with your hatching.

 

[HKG]

I only had one in the incubator, it was a project so I only did one incase it didn't hatch.

By the way just to eliminate confusion, the experiment was not meant to have sky rocketing temperatures. It was an accident. I just didn't want anyone to think I purposefully almost cooked the chick.

 

[The Renaissance Woman]

I’m sure it wasn’t.