I've gone BROODY!! TEMP Question

[BirdBrain]

I finally did it and it is ALL your fault.

You have infected me with the "gotta hatch blues."

My DH and I managed to get our homemade bator wired up and fired up. The eggs are in and now I feel like "I don't know nothing about hatchin' no chicks."

I borrowed someone's idea of blowing out an egg and using it as a "water wiggler". I filled the egg with hair gel, inserted the temp probe and hot glued the holes shut. As I expected, the temp in the bator dropped a couple of degrees when I put in my eggs. It is now back up to 99.9 degrees and the fake egg internal temp is 99.0. Our bator has a fan, so I am assuming that the 99.9 (as close as I can get it to 99.5) is okay.

Why is it that head knowledge doesn't seem to mean much when you get right down to it. I wish I were a broody hen and I wouldn't have to worry about any of this stuff. I would just know what to do and do it with out asking the consensus of 20,000+ BYCers. Imagine Henrietta Hen turning to Debbie Dominique, "Say Deb. Do you think my nest is okay? How long can I be off each day? What do I do if...."

AAACK!! Somehow I will get through these next 21 days. And after all that I hope I have something to show for it. We (my kids and I) wanted to experience the miracle of hatching even though we live in the dreaded HOA and can't keep them. They will be going to 35 beautiful acres. My DH is very tolerant of my hair brained ideas but this one has him shaking his head.

 

[WriterofWords]

Blowing out an egg, filling it with hair gel,,, I've never even used a water wiggler lol. We'll be watching you,, see if you get off your nest or not!

 

[Chicken Woman]

I could loan you a broody ! She is a little dutch bantam and she has been sitting on 2 wooden eggs and the eggs she hatches everyday. She's been there for 3 days and makes a terrible noise when I take the fresh eggs out and leave her with the wooden ones

I had one wooden egg in each box and I think she rolled one out of another box into hers so she can have 2

I widh I had some eggs to put inder her and let her hatch them but I don't have a rooster ? Poor thing !

 

[BirdBrain]

So the bator has been up and running for a day. The Gel filled egg reads anywhere between 99.1-100.3...usually 99.9 or 100.1. The air temp in the bator reads 99.2 with occasional fluctuations down to 98.5. Because the two readings varied and the gel egg was reading higher, I have been reluctant to increase the air temp. This morning I got a long scientific bulb thermometer and laid it between the eggs. It says the air temp is 100.1 or 100.2. Which one do I believe and are the temps okay?

 

[BirdBrain]

I have put 2 scientific thermometers in there now. THey agree with each other mostly. One says 100.1 and the other says 99.8. My fake egg continues to read 99.5-99.9 fairly constantly and the air temp in the bator reads 98.5-99.4. I tend to believe the scientific thermometers more. Is 100 too high for a forced air bator? I thought it was supposed to be 99.5. Or maybe I am just being a nervous ninny.