Humidity and temp problems

[ARTsignature]

This is my first time hatching eggs. I just got 4 Buff Orpington eggs today, and have started the incubation process. I have a farm innovators 4200 model. However, my three temp/ humidity gauges are reading different temps (102.2, 98.4, and 92.8). I have tried using a different thermometer, but it turns off after one minute so I kept opening and closing the incubator to turn it back on. Because of this, the humidity dropped from 56% to 37% and I can't seem to get it back up. Is this okay or do I need to get it higher? (I already have sponges in the reservoir + an extra cup w/ sponges)
Any suggestions or feedback helps!

 

[junior67]

This is my first time hatching eggs. I just got 4 Buff Orpington eggs today, and have started the incubation process. I have a farm innovators 4200 model. However, my three temp/ humidity gauges are reading different temps (102.2, 98.4, and 92.8). I have tried using a different thermometer, but it turns off after one minute so I kept opening and closing the incubator to turn it back on. Because of this, the humidity dropped from 56% to 37% and I can't seem to get it back up. Is this okay or do I need to get it higher? (I already have sponges in the reservoir + an extra cup w/ sponges)
Any suggestions or feedback helps!

have you tried to calibrate the thermometers so that you know how much each one is off? If not I would search on here how to calibrate them. That should help you. You can then either mark them or keep the one that is correct. I dont' know anything about that incubator so not sure how to get the humidity up but I know sometimes mine takes a bit to jump back up.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I never trust any thermometer until it has been calibrated. That includes any factory presets or thermometers that come with the incubator. The Farm Innovators instruction sheet tells you not to trust theirs since they say to get another one to check theirs. What you are seeing shows why you need a calibrated thermometer. I use an old fashioned medical thermometer since those are calibrated but I'm not sure where you would get one with all the electronic thermometers they use today.

What controls humidity in that incubator is wet surface area. It has two different water reservoirs in the bottom and you fill the big one for incubation and both for hatch. I assume you filled the big one. Mine has four different reservoirs of different sizes. By only having those two reservoirs you don't have much of a way to make adjustments so you do things like add sponges, paper towels, or cloth washrags to wick water out of a reservoir to increase the wet surface area. Or add a dish of water. To get it to drop you might cover part of the reservoir with aluminum foil or maybe some type of plastic wrap. So you are doing the right thing.

the humidity dropped from 56% to 37% and I can't seem to get it back up.

I had something similar once. When I put the lid back on the power chord got in the way and the lid did not close properly. That was driving me nuts until I finally figured it out.