So I am using a home made incubator inspired from the post here on BYC (PC fan, water bottle, 25 watt clear light, using egg cartons for the whole hatch). My first try at this had good results (14 out of 20) but had my first pip on day 18 and all hatched by early day 20... I blamed this on the heat swings that come with using a water heater thermostat and have switched to a wafer. All of chick from this hatch seem to be fine after a month, so I think no issue developed by the early hatch.
So, new batch of 24 eggs put in on the evening of April 9th with the new and improved thermostat. Yesterday we had our first pip and one over achiever that didn't waste any time getting out of the egg. This morning we have about half the eggs with pips. By my math, these chicks are still two days early, which points to the heat being hotter than 99/100. My fine collect of thermometers seem to say other wise, however none of these go into any water source to see what internal egg temps might be.
So... thoughts on how if this needs to be resolved (being that my chicks have so far been fine) and if so how I could increase my temperature awareness?
P.S. This is the first time I've used a egg carton for holding the eggs through the whole hatch, it was definitely worth the effort. Say goodbye to egg hockey and eggs getting trapped in corners. Also props to the wafer thermostat, even if I'm reading the temp wrong, it's holding that temp steady.
So, new batch of 24 eggs put in on the evening of April 9th with the new and improved thermostat. Yesterday we had our first pip and one over achiever that didn't waste any time getting out of the egg. This morning we have about half the eggs with pips. By my math, these chicks are still two days early, which points to the heat being hotter than 99/100. My fine collect of thermometers seem to say other wise, however none of these go into any water source to see what internal egg temps might be.
So... thoughts on how if this needs to be resolved (being that my chicks have so far been fine) and if so how I could increase my temperature awareness?
P.S. This is the first time I've used a egg carton for holding the eggs through the whole hatch, it was definitely worth the effort. Say goodbye to egg hockey and eggs getting trapped in corners. Also props to the wafer thermostat, even if I'm reading the temp wrong, it's holding that temp steady.
