Maintaining temperature in Hova-Bator 1602...

[chickenlover100]

I've had my incubator up and running for 10 days now but the temperature keeps fluctuating. I don't know how to keep it stable. Does the room temperature need to stay in a certain range? I've had a spike up to 106 and a dip down to 96. When it is stable it is at 99-102. I'm new at this, so any info would be appreciated. My first batch is in the incubator now, but they are just test eggs from the grocery store.

 

[Bock_Bock]

yes with these basic incubators, the outside temp makes a big difference, you want your incubator to be in a spot where the temp outside the incubator stays as constant as possible, i am hatching in one right now and this is my 3rd time with this incubator, and i relized that at night the twmps will drop a few degrees and during the hottest of days it will raise a few degrees, but it does have alot to to with outside the incubator temp

 

[Happy Chooks]

Mine didn't fluctuate too much. It really held pretty steady. Keep it inside, out of the sun, away from windows and not in a place with temp/humidity fluctuation. Also it takes a VERY TINY movement on the thermostat to change temperature.

The only time I had to adjust mine was when we had a really bad storm come through. I adjusted it up, then back down when the storm passed. I had to adjust a bit for lockdown because of all the extra water I added. (my fault, I added too much)

I hatched 5 out of 7 eggs and it was my first time hatching.

 

[S&N Livestock]

Gonna be hard to test store bought eggs as they prolly are not fertile.

 

[Ryan81986]

I don't think any store bought eggs come through fertile.

 

[Bock_Bock]

Quote:
i have fertile store bought eggs in my incubator right now, and there are stories of people hatching store bought eggs all over this site, mostly fertile eggs from trader joes

 

[Ryan81986]

No kidding. Thats pretty interesting, I never knew that. Any specific brands or types?

 

[Bock_Bock]

sorry not meaning to hijack
but there is pics of the carton and eggs on this thread it is my third incubation
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=267079

they are strait Trader Joes brand

 

[chickenlover100]

Thanks to all of you. It all helped a lot. My eggs were fertile from Trader Joes. The thing is, I think the carton I got was an old shipment so I don't think they will hatch.

It was a good practice trial though.

 

[Bock_Bock]

ok well when your eggs set and you candle for the first time around 6 or 7 days let me know what you see, as this is my first time incubating store bought eggs to, but luckily me right when i got to Trader joes they had just finished putting out a fresh batch of eggs so i got lucky, i will keep you posted up on how it goes when did you set your store bought eggs?