How wide have your temp swings been and still have something hatch?

[mediazeal]

I have a GQF cabinet incubator I bought from craigslist. It's in perfect condition and fairly new.
The controls are so hard to get just right. I have a digital thermometer 'spot checker' from brinsea and the temp swings are scaring me to death and perhaps killing my test batch.
After setting it at 99.5 with the off set to 99.7 and the on set to 99.3
I wake up in the morning to it being 97.6 or something equally scary and I know it's been too low during the night.
I just opened the door and fanned the eggs when it got up to 100.3 tonight.
it's freaking me out after using the Brinsea Octogon 20 and it self regulating and staying rock solid at 99.5-99.7 for 21 days.

So what swings of temp do your eggs survive?


I've moved the incubator to a new location, hoping this room, while a little cooler, will be more stable in terms of room temp. I'm hoping that helps. We will see tonight.

 

[lemurchaser]

100.3 is still fine. Anywhere between 99-100.5 and I'm happy. My LG swings a few degrees in either direction, but I keep a very close eye on it to prevent it getting too far off.

 

[mediazeal]

Quote:
What about them spending the night dropping down to 97.5 or so?
what temps will for sure kill them?

thanks for the response!!

 

[lemurchaser]

Quote:
What about them spending the night dropping down to 97.5 or so?
what temps will for sure kill them?

thanks for the response!!

There isn't any for sure temp. I've certainly had temps that low before, obviously not ideal. Too low is safer than too high. There are a lot of posts about power cuts for 6 hours or so (and temps in the 80's) and some chicks hatch. It will decrease hatch rates, but it varies on how much. I figure much below 95 or above 102 for more than a few hours and you're risking your hatch. But the hen moves them from warmer to cooler spots under her, so I imagine they are pretty well equipped to deal with low temps, but not so much the high temps. Remember they are fluid filled and take a few hours to change temperatures. So when people find their incubator reading 108, the eggs are likely not actually that hot.

So having it run low at night may delay your hatch, I doubt its really decreasing your hatch rate by much though. I would be really happy with a temp of 100.3, that's fine. I do try to keep it under 101.

 

[silkieflock]

I had mine go up to 108.something and I still had 8 hatch. I dropped the eggs, my son dropped the eggs, my nephew roughly rolled the eggs into the corner of the henhouse, and on and on and on...

 

[duckluck]

Have you tried changing out the wafer and/or switch? I had to do this with my Humidaire hatcher...I was having some pretty wild temp swings too. I also discovered I was having a problem getting it up to the desired temperature after changing them because I had the backup set too low. It may very well be that you need to change the wafer...I may have to soon do that with the GQF 1202 I am also running because it has become touchier than usual...it is not a very forgiving bator to adjust, because the knob is so sensitive you barely touch it and it goes up or down a whole degree. Not necessarily good with fumbly fingers like mine!

 

[SarahFair]

I have a LG and I love it. The temp swings came with temp changes in the house.
We left over night once and something went wrong with the heat and it never shut off. When I got home it was 85 in the house and the incubator was at 104! Then I turned the nob down and it dropped to 97..

Its been over a week and Im on day 18 and I still have movement in my eggs.

 

[mediazeal]

You guys are making me feel better.
Thanks for the info and ideas.
It did a little better last night in the new location. I woke up a few times to check it and it's been 99.0, 99..1, 99.3
but not the wild 97 and 100 swing.
I will see how it does where it is as the house warms up this morning.
keep your fingers crossed for me.
I've got some beautiful eggs I don't want to screw up!