Incubator and Wood Heat Temperature Swings

[FlocknRoll]

Hello to everyone at Backyard Chickens! And thank you so much for all your helpful advice from a longtime lurker and forum fan.

I recently purchased a Hovabator 1588 and am ready to try my first hatch, but reading through the instructions included with the incubator is making me rethink my plans to start the eggs in March. We are in upstate NY and our house is on wood heat, and we experience ambient air temperatures down to 52 F or lower at night, up to 76 F (sometimes as high as 80 F) during the day all winter long. There is no place in our house where temperatures are stable. The instructions state that temperatures below 60 F or temperature changes of more than 10 degrees will affect the incubator performance.

Should I wait until late spring and better weather before I try out my incubator, or is there something I can do to insulate the incubator somehow?

Thank you kindly for your thoughts!

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

where is you woodburner, i have one also. basement & groundfloor?

 

[FlocknRoll]

In our living room

 

[mandelyn]

Is there a small room you can place a space heater in? I did that so I could hatch in the dead of winter in a drafty old farm house with wood heat. I kept the door to the room shut with one of those draft barrier things slid underneath it. Spent a couple days watching the room temp and the incubator, and it stayed stable enough. Was using my own eggs, so I made sure I was collecting them like 5 times a day before they could freeze. Had a pretty good hatch out of it.

The space heater was one of the thermostat controlled radiator styles so that I could choose a setting and leave it.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

I hatch in the back bedroom as far away from the wood stove as possible, and have done well.

 

[Katy]

We heat with a woodstove which is on the first floor, but I keep my incubators in the basement so the room temps are steady.

 

[zekii]

Quote:
What are your room temps in the basement, mine average between 46 - 52 F, so not sure if this would be ok with using a still air hovabator ?

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
Same here for the few times I've hatched in winter.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
What are your room temps in the basement, mine average between 46 - 52 F, so not sure if this would be ok with using a still air hovabator ?

I think they're probably about 50....there's no heat source. I use Genesis 1588's which have a fan so I don't know if that would make any difference or not.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Same here for the few times I've hatched in winter.

Same here as well, only my bator is in the dining room. I've had it in the den as well.