I have a question, what is everyone’s temp and humidity pre-lockdown?
We had to buy and set up the incubator quickly so my hen wouldn’t eat anymore eggs and so we just went with the pre-set temp and humidity it told us to go with which is 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit and between 50-55% humidity. Does that sound right? We bought a Nurture Right 360 and from what little I’ve read so far they have pretty good review. Do y’all think it’ll be fine for now? Lockdown is tomorrow so I don’t want to have to mess with the eggs too much other than candling tomorrow while I change the incubator a bit (remove turner etc). I also don’t think there’s enough room to put in a thermometer or hygrometer to check accuracy because it’s pretty small.
I haven't seen what others may have replied to this as I wanted to make sure I put in my 2 cents. I used a Nurture Right 360. It is a pretty decent incubator for the price. Make sure you get the anti-moisture pad and either get the fan guard thing or use something to cover the fan guard already there that will allow air flow.
When you get the anti moisture pad it can be a paid to put in. The picture makes it look like you can move the big piece out of the way, but with mine the wires were not long enough for that. I believe that's why I ended up with a nasty temperature spike after I installed it. After several timea of having to open the incubator back up to try and fix it, I finally got it as okay as possible. The temp gauges is a touch off.
It can be off by .5 or a whole degree. Make sure you have your own thermometer that you can calibrate. My thermometer read 100.2 while the incubator read 98.5. Since I read that eggs were ok with being between 98 and 100 for forced air incubators I left it there. It meant they would either be on time or a little late. Better a little late than cooked.
I did Seramas and read plenty of people on here who do them say they like doing a dry incubation pre-lockdown. I wasn't comfortable with that so I kept the humidity around 30%. It meant I'd have to add a teaspoon or two of water once or twice a day, but it was worth it. Normally they'd be fine all day and I'd have to add water before I went to bed.
The hygrometer on the incubator seemed to be pretty close to what it should really be inside. Maybe 2 or 3% off, reading below what my hygrometer said (but my hygrometer was probably off as well so I trusted did the whole letting it stay between what the incubator and my own hygrometer said).
Overall I am super happy with this incubator. It is a great one for first timers. If my eggs hadn't been so small and I hadn't had to install the anti-moisture pad I would have been able to practically leave it alone the entire time.
I need to do a video review and put it on my youtube channel.
If you want the anti-moisture pad and fan guard just email the company. They'll ask for your name and mailing address and you should get the pieces within 3 days. You *can* install during incubation, just not during lockdown. And be careful with the screws, they strip the plastic of the lid super easy so I had some that would fall out and I had to angle them in or tape them in place.