Last minute incubating!

[CCUK]

It's a forced air incubator. It needs to be 37.5c. It gets to that then the heater stops so it cools slightly then switches back on and the heat goes up again?! So should I set it at about 37.7c to compensate temperature fluctuations?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If you have a slow read thermometer it reads the average. For quick reporting thermometers like an oral medical you take the high and low readings and average them for true.

What I use is a humidor temp/humidity that sits in incubator. That's a slow reading temp and reads low, consistent so fien to use. To dial in the temp I put a digital oral thermometer down the air hole. It's larger at display so sits right on hole with probe down in. I use that to measure high and low and fine tune the temp until the average is where it needs to be.

You'll note the high is about 30 seconds after the heat element turns off, the element is still hot so continues to emit heat. The low is again about 30 seconds after the heater turns on- it takes time for the element to heat up.

 

[CCUK]

I have a reptile humidity sensor that I put inside the incubator and seems to read about 5% lower than the one on the digital display. I have a glass thermometer that I put through the hole and that reads the same as the digital readout. I have kids digital thermometer so I will use that and see what the reading is and fine tune the incubator.

 

[CCUK]

Well the temperature was reading 0.4c low, so adjusted the settings now it looks good. Humidity is 51%. Eggs are in. Temp dropped to 35.8c took about an hour to get back up. Humidity at 53%. Waiting game now. I'll candle at day 7 and see what we've got. All 8 hopefully!

 

[ronott1]

Is that a water container?

I use it to raise humidity about 7% in the incubator. It works great! I have two of them and sometimes I have used both

 

[Ahavati]

Do you have the styrofoam that the incubator came in? I have the same one, different control panel, but if you leave the styrofoam on the bottom and set the other piece over the top, it holds temp fine. ine recovers very quickly when I open it.

That said, I personally am not a stickler that the fluctuations are that bad as long as they stay within range and dont drop or spike really bad. A momma hen doesn't have a strict steady temp and gets up a few times to eat. So the eggs will fluctuate a little bit.

 

[CCUK]

Do you have the styrofoam that the incubator came in? I have the same one, different control panel, but if you leave the styrofoam on the bottom and set the other piece over the top, it holds temp fine. ine recovers very quickly when I open it.

That said, I personally am not a stickler that the fluctuations are that bad as long as they stay within range and dont drop or spike really bad. A momma hen doesn't have a strict steady temp and gets up a few times to eat. So the eggs will fluctuate a little bit.

No. I got the incubator second hand. I was going to get something better but this happened kind of quick. It's true the broody hen gets of the eggs to feed and drink so there will be fluctuations. So I guess that if it's the correct temperature most of the time the odd cool won't do much harm. I think it's if they get too hot when you have problems. The last time I used this it was in my garage and I struggled to keep the temperature up. I ended up putting a heatlamp over it for the last week!

 

[Ahavati]

No. I got the incubator second hand. I was going to get something better but this happened kind of quick. It's true the broody hen gets of the eggs to feed and drink so there will be fluctuations. So I guess that if it's the correct temperature most of the time the odd cool won't do much harm. I think it's if they get too hot when you have problems. The last time I used this it was in my garage and I struggled to keep the temperature up. I ended up putting a heatlamp over it for the last week!

If you have a couple big towels, try wrapping those around the base.

 

[CCUK]

I'll see how the temperature holds. I've got some old removal company blankets I can use. The incubator is in my kitchen now so it's not so cold as the garage!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You want the incubator to breath. Don't wrap it up, a small temp range is perfectly normal. I've incubated with perfect results and 2.5 F temp swing.

Also I'd not incubate that high of humidity. First 18 days you'll find around 25-35% RH will grow your air cells to proper size. Up to 70% RH for hatch.