Incubator tune up - Got some questions on temp. variations & more!

[Riven]

Job breifing:
I have a cabinet style incubator with four trays and a "hatching tray" on the bottom. It has a large fan and two thermostats up top, and what looks like a light bulb but is like a heating coil. I put water on that shelf for humidity, and it has a thermometer there that you can read outside.

I had my first hatch go fine no issues.

Next hatch.. all formed chicks died in shell, some pipped some not. I was also pulling a lot of half formed eggs out during candling. So upon suggestion I put a dig. thermometer/hydrometer on the shelf and I found.. a bit over 2 degrees cooler than what the "built in" thermometer was reading! With it being over 3 degree cooler on the bottom rack ( 96.4). Note: Hatch one and hatch two ran concurrent with each other, with a week difference in hatch date.

No good at all!

I checked the door seal and it's okay, made sure there were no shell pieces in the way or anything. And moved my hatchers to a little bin on the top. Hatch rate went up, but still isn't perfect, have had some died in shell fully formed.

I want to tune my incubator up after shut down, but want to get some information.

What would cause this un-uniform temps? How do I fix it?


Also where do I get another "heater bulb" thing?
I should maybe keep a back up?
Why are there two thermostats?

I want to put a window in, it has a semi-automatic turning rack, but I have to open it to see when to turn it off, thus the window to see everything, what kind of material should I use for this? Any plans on putting a window in an existing door ( I do carpenter type projects so I know "how" but would love to see it done for tips )

Thanks a ton!

 

[Cherlyn]

How odd. How has your humidity been?

Maybe put a fan on the bottom as well?

~Cherlyn

 

[Emilys3guppies]

Is there a lot of empty space that could be filled with heat sinks? What about another fan, rather than another heating element, to help circulate the air better? I think that would help get a more rounded temperature.

 

[Cherlyn]

Quote:
Forgive me - I know nothing about heat sinks. What are they, and what do they do? Thanks!

~Cherlyn

 

[mulia24]

recheck for leakage.


turn off the fan so the bator have still air mode an if there's no leakage then all side and place inside would have same temp cause there's no heat "leak" to outside. but it should be difficult since you have many racks and hold many eggs.

maybe 2 thermostat are supposed to : if 1 broken then the other could back it up, but you don't explain the wiring section of thermostat. how do we know, are the thermostat connected one to each other? or 1 to fan 1 to bulb or how? i haven't use thermostat since this's my first time and temp get constant in my bator if i have no power failure. i just need to check it every 2-3 hours.


you can use flexiglass or thick glass (like i use).


i can't give reliable suggestion, so surely you use my information only as reference not as main source cause many member in BYC are very professional and have higher veteran level than me. cause this's my first incubate and they even haven't hatch yet. they need another week.

 

[Emilys3guppies]

Quote:
Forgive me - I know nothing about heat sinks. What are they, and what do they do? Thanks!

~Cherlyn

Theoretically I know what a heat sink is, but sometimes my words get lost so bear with me while I explain.

If there is too much empty space and air in your incubator then it can be unstable...especially because the heat source is rapidly transferring heat to the incubator. To combat the instability, you can add a jar of something that will absorb the heat, store it, and release it at a slower rate than the heat source itself. Baby jars or mason jars of sand or water will do the trick...it will pull heat from the air and hold it, helping to keep the temperature in the rest of the incubator stable. This way, if your heating element goes a little hot, or a little cool, your heat sink will help keep the temp you want until you can get back to your incubator to adjust.

It's just like when I bought a new chest freezer...the technician recommended that you don't run an empty freezer...it's just not efficient and you will get cold spots and hot spots. Filling space with SOMETHING is better than empty and unstable air.

However, you do want to make sure that your heat sinks don't get in the way of your ventiliation.

I hope that someone else can drop by and give a better explaination than I did.

All the best,
Emily

 

[Cherlyn]

Quote:
Forgive me - I know nothing about heat sinks. What are they, and what do they do? Thanks!

~Cherlyn

Theoretically I know what a heat sink is, but sometimes my words get lost so bear with me while I explain.

If there is too much empty space and air in your incubator then it can be unstable...especially because the heat source is rapidly transferring heat to the incubator. To combat the instability, you can add a jar of something that will absorb the heat, store it, and release it at a slower rate than the heat source itself. Baby jars or mason jars of sand or water will do the trick...it will pull heat from the air and hold it, helping to keep the temperature in the rest of the incubator stable. This way, if your heating element goes a little hot, or a little cool, your heat sink will help keep the temp you want until you can get back to your incubator to adjust.

It's just like when I bought a new chest freezer...the technician recommended that you don't run an empty freezer...it's just not efficient and you will get cold spots and hot spots. Filling space with SOMETHING is better than empty and unstable air.

However, you do want to make sure that your heat sinks don't get in the way of your ventiliation.

I hope that someone else can drop by and give a better explaination than I did.

All the best,
Emily

Emily,

This is EXCELLENT information! I just filled an applesauce jar with children's play sand, and put it into my homemade Styrofoam incubator. Hopefully it will help regulate the temp!

Thanks!

~Cherlyn

 

[shelleyd2008]

'A full bator is a happy bator', that's my motto. I completely agree with Emily, you need 'something' in there to help regulate the temps. You can use jars/bottles of water (sealed of course), baggies of water, or even something like a brick or rocks. Anything that will heat up with the bator and help hold the heat.

Late deaths like you have been experiencing can also be caused by temp or humidity variations.

 

[Riven]

Okay, I've got an idea!

The incubator has at least two dozen eggs on each rack until recently.

As a precaution about variance in surrounding temps we moved it into the "pet room" where it's almost always the same from the garage just to be safe. The garage is insulated and usually very constant but I figured it won't hurt anything.

My husband was thinking we needed to add a heating element in the bottom, but I was thinking maybe just a fan? There is plenty of space in front and back of the trays and they are metal trays with wire on the bottom to allow for air flow. I use cardboard egg cartons with the bottoms cut off to set the eggs. The incubator set-up is very similar to the ones that djquaileggs makes, but it has two coil thermostats that are linked together instead of a mercury one, and not as nice looking, lol. I got this guy used and the guy said he always had a great hatch rate on his chickens, but not his rare pheasants that require very dry conditions.

Last night I moved the thermometer to the bottom again to check the temp and it was at 99.1, much better than was previously, but there are currently less eggs in right now, which makes me wonder if I would just need another fan on the bottom. The top fan is appx. 6" exhaust type fan and moves air pretty well.

Humidity has been a little low but not really bad.

So back to the idea... What if to help hold heat in the bottom tray I put some socks full of sand? That could actually work for me well because I have a big tray down there and I had to put in some wood blocks to prevent eggs from rolling around when you pull the tray out. Any thoughts on that?

Other than cleaning up what do you guys do to store your incubator for the winter??

 

[mulia24]

ehm. sorry, i even never feel winter.