- May 18, 2009
- 118
- 1
- 109
I figure that when he created his law, good old Murphy must have had the incubator woes.
About six days into my third hatch in my LG, the fan I installed decided it was time to die. As a result, DH and I worked for days trying to get the temps up to 99.5 and keep them there. We had one short spike up to 102 degrees.
The problem was I've been relying on a working fan and monitoring the air inside the incubator. I've been unable to find any water wigglers at the store and my attempts to make one with Ziploc bags resulted in a wet, sloppy mess.
Then on Saturday night, I had a brainstorm. My daughter (who will soon be starting an online bakery) sent a cake and other goodies to test her shipping regimen. Surrounding the cake was a ring of tiny ice pak type things. I had saved them to send back to her. Then I realized I could use them to make a tiny water wiggler.
I taped the probe to one of the little packets and then close another one over the probe and tape the whole thing closed. I put it back in the incubator to see if it would work. It did. Then came the mission to get the wiggler temp up to 99.5.
DH made me a plywood box complete with insulation foam sheets to put the entire incubator in. The combination seemed to work. The temps have been more or less steady, going from a low of 98.6 to a high of 99.7.
The tiny wiggler substitute seems to be more sensitive to temperature changes than what the bigger wigglers would probably be. But it's reassuring not to have to worry about temperature fluctuations in the incubator with the wild changes in our house temperature.
This Day 8. I've got 42 eggs in the bator: 19 of my own, 12 purchased from a local breeder and 11 I received in the March egg swap.
Now, I just hope those three days didn't mess things up too much.
Murphy and his law need to stay away from me and my eggs.
Denise
About six days into my third hatch in my LG, the fan I installed decided it was time to die. As a result, DH and I worked for days trying to get the temps up to 99.5 and keep them there. We had one short spike up to 102 degrees.
The problem was I've been relying on a working fan and monitoring the air inside the incubator. I've been unable to find any water wigglers at the store and my attempts to make one with Ziploc bags resulted in a wet, sloppy mess.
Then on Saturday night, I had a brainstorm. My daughter (who will soon be starting an online bakery) sent a cake and other goodies to test her shipping regimen. Surrounding the cake was a ring of tiny ice pak type things. I had saved them to send back to her. Then I realized I could use them to make a tiny water wiggler.
I taped the probe to one of the little packets and then close another one over the probe and tape the whole thing closed. I put it back in the incubator to see if it would work. It did. Then came the mission to get the wiggler temp up to 99.5.
DH made me a plywood box complete with insulation foam sheets to put the entire incubator in. The combination seemed to work. The temps have been more or less steady, going from a low of 98.6 to a high of 99.7.
The tiny wiggler substitute seems to be more sensitive to temperature changes than what the bigger wigglers would probably be. But it's reassuring not to have to worry about temperature fluctuations in the incubator with the wild changes in our house temperature.
This Day 8. I've got 42 eggs in the bator: 19 of my own, 12 purchased from a local breeder and 11 I received in the March egg swap.
Now, I just hope those three days didn't mess things up too much.
Murphy and his law need to stay away from me and my eggs.
Denise
