House Temperature and Incubating eggs

[AmericanMom]

I'm coming up on day 6 (at 1pm) and so far my temperature and humidity have been super stable, until that is this morning, woke up and the fire had went out in the night, inside the house the temp is 65, temp was 98.9 in the incubator and the humidity was around 40, mind you this is lower than my Hova Bator recommends and lower then my first batch... For the last 6 days the temp in the house never got below 72 and I haven't had to adjust the dial on the bator at all, it has stayed between 100-101.3 and the humidity has stayed between 45-50 if it drops below 39 I have added about 1/4 cup of water and waited for it to stabilize (usually an hour) and then wouldn't have to touch it for another two days. I had heard inside temps effect the incubator but until today didn't realize how much.. I'm not worried, it wasn't a drastic drop, got a fire going and warming up the house, but thought for anyone new to incubating this info might be useful.

 

[FVRM]

This is my first time hatching and the instructions that came with my incubator said not to let room temperatures drop below 63 degrees F. I think that temp drop shouldnt have any effect on them since the chicken leaves the nest for awhile if they are incubated naturally.

 

[AmericanMom]

This is my first time hatching and the instructions that came with my incubator said not to let room temperatures drop below 63 degrees F. I think that temp drop shouldnt have any effect on them since the chicken leaves the nest for awhile if they are incubated naturally.

I agree about the hen leaving the nest, but my issue this morning has been wanting to mess with the dial on the incubator, Wood heat is our only heat source and its getting the temp in the house up that matters... right now I'm up to an inside temp of 71 and my incubator temp is back on track.
Room temperature makes a huge difference, if the hen goes off an egg she may only be off for 10-20 min...although I didn't have a drastic drop it has taken me since 7:30 am to get it warmed back up in here, cant imagine had it been colder last night when the fire went out

 

[ozexpat]

I agree about the hen leaving the nest, but my issue this morning has been wanting to mess with the dial on the incubator, Wood heat is our only heat source and its getting the temp in the house up that matters... right now I'm up to an inside temp of 71 and my incubator temp is back on track.
Room temperature makes a huge difference, if the hen goes off an egg she may only be off for 10-20 min...although I didn't have a drastic drop it has taken me since 7:30 am to get it warmed back up in here, cant imagine had it been colder last night when the fire went out

You are doing everything right.

Dont mess with the dial.

The styrobators are only equvalent to about R3 insulation so when the temps get below 65 in the room that they are sitting in, the 40 watt heating element has trouble maintaining temps.

If your room has large temp swings it is recomended to either find a more stable room or add insulation - a towel not obstructing the vents, a plywood box with a couple of vent holes.

 

[AmericanMom]

You are doing everything right.

Dont mess with the dial.

The styrobators are only equvalent to about R3 insulation so when the temps get below 65 in the room that they are sitting in, the 40 watt heating element has trouble maintaining temps.

If your room has large temp swings it is recomended to either find a more stable room or add insulation - a towel not obstructing the vents, a plywood box with a couple of vent holes.

Thanks, Yes that's the only problem I would have in the future with winter incubation, this actually is the most stable room, we purposely leave it cooler in bedrooms (sleep better) The idea of a wood box with a few holes for ventilation is what I will do. Normally we keep it in the low 70's , guess I got lazy last night and forgot to add some oak to the fire before I went to bed

 

[otis7]

We heat with a wood stove too, but thankfully our house still has baseboard heat. At first we were trying to just run the wood stove and our homemade styrofoam incubator temps were drastically changing. We cracked and turned on the electric heat in the incubator room, it's made a huge difference. We still have to check the temps obsessively though by adding or removing towels from the incubator. It's worse at night. We get up like every hour to check it! I need a full nights sleep!

 

[AmericanMom]

We heat with a wood stove too, but thankfully our house still has baseboard heat. At first we were trying to just run the wood stove and our homemade styrofoam incubator temps were drastically changing. We cracked and turned on the electric heat in the incubator room, it's made a huge difference. We still have to check the temps obsessively though by adding or removing towels from the incubator. It's worse at night. We get up like every hour to check it! I need a full nights sleep!

I haven't as of yet because hubby usually gets up once for a 2am snack and always added wood, he didn't last night.. I do have a space heater in the master bathroom because its the coldest room in the house. Our grandsons (3&4) are coming to stay with us this weekend and I had planned to move the incubator into our bedroom to keep little hands off it (they are sweet and good but I don't want to chance this hatch at all) when they leave I'll move the bator into the spare room with the space heater, cant do it now as the boys consider that "their" room

 

[otis7]

My boyfriend is also pretty good about random night wake ups and tending to the stove. One night he slept as well and that's when cracked with the heat. Good luck with your hatch! (I am not looking forward t my electric bill this month though!)

 

[AmericanMom]

My boyfriend is also pretty good about random night wake ups and tending to the stove. One night he slept as well and that's when cracked with the heat. Good luck with your hatch! (I am not looking forward t my electric bill this month though!)

You too.... I'm certainly more calm this time around