Incubating Newbie- Temp question :)

[Stuckinlove]

Hello all! I am new to incubating and I wanted to know what temp do you set your forced air incubator to and do you turn it down when you enter "lockdown" also what do you keep the humidity at? I know there is a lot of information however I start confusing myself when get into the long threads. I have an incubator coming in the mail next week along with a stand alone thermometer and hygrometer (spelling?), I also already have a candler. I am going to set a few of my own chicken eggs for a first run after I make sure the temp is okay for a couple days. Any more information would be great!
Thanks!
Jessica

 

[theuglychick]

Congrats! Hatching is so much fun! I'm addicted!!

I run mine at 100-101 degrees F through out the entire incubation time, then lower it just a tad to 99-100 degrees F during lockdown and hatch.

 

[theuglychick]

Best of luck with your hatch!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I set mine at 99.5 F which is the recommended temp for a forced air. I leave it at 99.5 for hatch. Remember to calibrate that thermometer when you get it, they often don't read correctly when you get them. A good way to check it is to use a medical thermometer and a warm glass of water around 100 degrees to see if they are both reading the same.

How big an incubator are you using? When the chicks get close to hatching they produce a lot of heat themselves. In the commercial incubators where you may have 60,000 or even 120,000 eggs in it, near hatching time their problem is not to keep the eggs warm but to get rid if the extra heat so it doesn't cook the eggs. We generally don't have enough eggs in our incubators for that to be a problem, so we generally don't need to turn them down. Turning it down a degree or so won't hurt if you really want to.

 

[Stuckinlove]

Thank you both for your response! I will only be doing about a dozen at a time since it's just for fun. What humidity do you keep your incubator at?

 

[theuglychick]

I'm in a humid area so it just naturally stays around 45-50%. Then at lockdown I bump it up to 55-75%.

 

[Stuckinlove]

What is the max temperature and max humidity level to stay under. I have it set to 99.5 however the thermometer is reading 101.1. Is that okay?

 

[theuglychick]

Mine fluctuates between 99 and 100. Every now and then it'll jump up to 101. My hatches don't seem to be affected, especially the further into it they are. I think it should be ok.

 

[Stuckinlove]

Great! I want to make sure the incubator is working properly before I put eggs into it!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

What model incubator are you using? Can you explain what you mean when you say it's set to 99.5 but the thermometer reads 101.1?

There is a lot going on temperature wise in an incubator. For instance I use a Hovabator with fan and metal wafer thermostat. There is a temperature swing (low to high) due to the heater turning on and off. This swing is large but narrows range once mass of eighteen to two dozen eggs is in incubator. Thermal mass will narrow the temp swing. There is also a range of temp from bottom of incubator to top. It's not as drastic as still air incubators but still exist. Once the auto turner is taken out and eggs placed on bottom I nudge the thermostat to raise the temp as it's colder on bottom of incubator. With these two things in mind you can see the importance of using only one thermometer and keeping track of where your taking the reading. Otherwise you'll go crazy chasing ghost readings.

For my own peace of mind I have a thermo/hygro unit in an open egg turner as an indicator if something is going wrong and to indicate the RH. To set the incubator temp I use a digital medical thermometer down the vent hole. Once the oral thermometer is up to temp it reads the highest temp so leave it in vent hole for five minutes to note high then wait half a minute after the heater turns on to turn the thermometer off/on and note low temp. Turn off and on few times to ensure lowest temp. Average of high and low reading is the temp in incubator. I set the incubator to 99.5 F in this manor. In doing so the cheap combo temp /hygrometer reads 97-98 F. Perfect! I know if it ever reads 99 or 96 something is wrong and need to reset with oral thermometer. You see where I went there? Your thermometers are not always accurate but they can still be useful. A medical thermometer is the most accurate inexpensive unit you'll ever find, you likely already have one in bathroom.