We have been running our new homemade incubator for about 15 hours and it seems to maintain at 103.5. Will this be too high for the eggs? The humidity is stable at 40%. (No eggs in yet)
103.5 is about 1.5 degrees to high , Still air should be between 101-102 circulated air should be 99.5-100 Good luck
Thanks. I will see if I can do a little alteration to my vent to see if I can get that last degree down
Still air or forced air? Either way I think the temp is too high - especially if it's forced air. With a still air you need to see if you can get it down about 2*. If you incubate this high your chicks will not be as healthy, they will hatch early and could have a lot of unabsorbed yolk problems as well as high chick mortality before hatch.
I've had mine get up to 107 and still had a good hatch. It was much further along in the incubation (perhaps day 15 or so). Thankfully I caught it in time and got the temp down to normal quickly. In that hatch, I had 11 out of 15 hatch. Not to shabby!
We are doing still air. It is a new homemade incubator. So this weekend is all about stabilizing. Just want to get it right!
Even in still air it's too high 100-100.5 is ideal for still air 99.5 for forced and I would bump the humidity to around 55%-60% too if it were me, not all agree, but ....it's a touch subject. But temp is definatly too high, every 1/2 degree you are off general throws the hatch off by 1 day, same if it's too cold, but more than 1-1.5 degrees and they wont make it, IF its for any prolonged period. Also, most incubators have a 2-5 degree fuctualtion in their termostat, watch it for a full on/off heating cycle, mine drops to 97.5 and shuts off at 101.5. Get it set so your AVERAGE temp is right. The eggs will not cool nearly as qucikly as air, so the average of your cycle is what the egg will be at Hope this helped Aubrey
mine is still air. 103.5 at the top and 97 on the turner. does that mean mine is too high? my adverage at the top is 100 my adverage on the turner is 98. so..............i am good?
You should measure on the top of the eggs. At the highest egg in a tilted carton or turner should not go over 103 and should not stay at that for more than a couple hours. Preferably all eggs would be at 101-102 but when tilting that's difficult since there can be a couple degrees different especially in a still air. With tilted cartons in a still air I keep the top egg at 102-103 and the bottom egg at 98-99 and have them hatch on time since as they are turned all the eggs go through the same temps for the same amount of time.