My incubator has been to cool

[cackleberrylinda]

I have 50 eggs in the incubator. Some black Ameracaunas I paid fairly dearly for and some Lavender cochin bantams same paying dearly for. And some bantams begged from the neighbors and some of my chicken's eggs which will be mutts. But I just discovered that the two thermometers were lying to me or something. I checked the bottom of the bator ( It's a hovabator) and the temp was 95 down there. Not sure if that has been going on all along or if it's a new development. I have the eggs in cartons (nervous about that) but I keep them on their side and just turn the whole thing over, side to side, a couple of times a day. Gosh, I hope I didn't chill my babies to death. I am getting a candler in a couple of days and I think I will wait till it gets here to candle. I can put off the heartbreak a few days. If this hatch doesn't work out, well, I guess I wait till next spring. sigh. I lost a dozen call duck eggs to my inexperience. I don't have a room in my house or on my property that is constant and stable so i am checking temps constantly. I can't believe I didn't notice. Well, just handling the cartons kept me from feeling if the eggs were warm or not... The cartons felt warm enough. I wonder also if the cartons kept the heat from circulating. Drat!! and Double Drat!!! I am hoping they weren't so cold as to not survive... Is crying allowed for Big Girls here?

 

[Redcatcher]

95* is fine for a still air incubator for a reading was taken at the BOTTOM. You want the temperature at the TOP of the eggs to be around 101*. The idea is for it to be 99.5 in the middle. That is why a lot of people are using water snakes or thermometers in the shape of an egg. The internal temperature of the eggs is what counts, not the top or bottom temperatures of the incubator. After all, when a hen incubates eggs, the eggs are going to be a few degrees cooler at the bottom of the nest than up against her skin.

 

[cackleberrylinda]

Thank you Paul.
That helped me a lot. Could be that my eggs will hatch anyway then. The temps outdoors fluctuate from 90s in the day to 50s at night here right now. That's up from 60s in the day to 50s at night a week ago and where I have my incubator is hard to regulate. So I am counting on Mother Nature to help my little egglets to weather the weather here. You never know.
I do feel some hope now after hearing from you.
Linda