Kismett

Chirping
7 Years
Jul 12, 2014
2
15
67
Hello all,
First time hatching here with my Ameraucanas, hoo boy it's stressful trying to be a chicken mama. They went in on the 5th, and I've been trying to dial in the temperature since, but struggling. I know my hatch rate won't be great this time around partly because some of the days when I was collecting it was a bit chilly in the coop (5c/41f), but I made note of the temp on the day I collected and wrote the date on the eggs so I'll be able to see how much of an effect it had.
I've been reading here that Little Giants aren't the best, but they're all that's available in my town. I know not to trust the thermometer it comes with, but my other thermometers are also all over the place, though all still thankfully within a safe range.
The Little Giant is reading 37.5c/99.5 which is ideal (I'm in Canada so I use Celsius), the digital thermometer with a string-sensor right at egg-level seems to read consistently one degree low, 36.5/97.7 now, and another digital one I put inside right on the eggs is at 38.3/100.9. I also popped in two old school mercury thermometers from my aquariums in there and they both look to be reading just slightly over 38/100.4, I think I'd be most likely to trust those, so then that digital one would be pretty close. I can't keep it in there with the egg turner on because it's too big, and there aren't instructions on how to calibrate the digital one with the sensor.
Any recommendations on which one I should trust and where I should set the thermostat?
Thank you for any help!

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PS: I know the humidity's a little high right now too, I'm going to try to suck out a bit of water with a towel without letting out too much heat.
 
Do not trust the incubator dials, lol. The Little Giants are notoriously wrong. So are the sensors on the digital ones, I fit my whole thermometer in when I can.
Did you try to test your mercury thermometers? I would go by them myself.
 
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LG sucks, that's for sure. You have to do a lot of adjusting and babysitting to make it work. I've done a couple of hatches with it, because I didn't have anything else available, and it was very stressful, but I made it work. Does yours have a fan? The key issue with the LG that doesn't have a fan is how uneven the temperature is throughout the incubator. You can have 5 thermometers in there showing completely different readings, and they can all be correct! It has hot spots and cold spots. You pretty much HAVE to have a fan of some sort to make it work. If it doesn't come with one built in, you can use a small handheld fan, to help move the air around to mix it up and even out the temperature. Use a lot of thermometers, in different areas of the incubator, and calibrate them all before use. Look up calibrating thermometers with ice water. I used reptile probe thermometers, because they are small, convenient and cheap, but accurate. You can fit a lot of probes in there and they don't take up a lot of space. Calibrate your hygrometer, too, as those can be inaccurate as well. Look up salt testing a hygrometer, and give it a good 24 hours minimum in the bag before you read it.

I documented my two LG hatches with lots of pictures and details on my adaptations and lessons learned. If you want to give them a read, you can find them here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...pictures-and-questions.1356048/#post-22367361

and here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rmational-hatch-thread.1454176/#post-24207377

Good luck! And let me know if I can help with anything else.
 
I have had success with my little giant by setting the temp to 102 to 102.5. My thermometer inside stays at 100 consitently with occasional 99.7 drop to 100.8 rise. But stays in that area. Have had 80 to 95 percent hatch rates this way. Just thought i would share in case it may help someone else. Good luck everyone and be safe.
 

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