Need some REAL ANSWERS about thermometers!! Please help!

[rebelcowboysnb]

Get a medical thermometer to match with your probe thermometers. They are almost always accurate to at least 1/2 a degree.

Fan blowing to the light of away really does not matter but blowing hot air down does help more than across.

Hot air wants to rise so if you keep blowing it down then your incubator will stay more even.

Think about a ceiling fan.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
Everything was running perfectly before I put eggs in. I would never have just put eggs in and then started working with the temperature. I expected a little fluctuation to begin with, but not this.

As far as the fan. The whole incubator space is so small, I would think that it almost doesn't matter where you put the fan. It is just to move the air. I really can't change it at this point as I would have to take the incubator apart to move it. I did take off the foil tent. I really think that was contributing to the difference in temps from one side to the other. We will see...

I am not going to do anything for a while. I am not even going to turn the eggs until I have more consistent temps. They will just have to deal.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Thanks all. I removed the foil tent and things have really settled in. The fan blows straight down at the light and unfortunately it still is cooler in the middle where it does that. So I just don't have eggs in the middle. I have a water bottle in the middle and the eggs are on either side of it. If they survived the cool down on the one side (down to 96 or 97) then we will just wait and see. I don't believe that it was actually 104 in the eggs on the other side. That just couldn't have been.

Momentary freak out. Thanks so much for the advice.

cowboy - I had a great scientific thermometer (much like a medical therm) but just before the hatch, I dropped it and it broke

As of right, now, I have a BO that has been in her nesting box all day and she really screeched at me when I opened the box. If she really is broody, she is getting half these eggs!! She is soooooooooo much better at this than I am. Come on Penny!!

 

[Penturner]

Quote:
It kind of sucks to think you can be trumped by a chicken don't it.

 

[babsbag]

I ended up putting 2 fans in mine. One in front of the light bulb and then one at the top, farthest corner from the light. I had too many warm and cold spots for my liking. I have 4 thermometers in mine ( I know, overkill) and I noticed that the temps are within a degree of each other IF I have them in the right spot. If the air doesn't circulate well around the sensor area on the digital ones then I don't get very accurite readings. I stuck a regular fever type thermometer in there at the beginning and my digitals were pretty close. So I was happy, but maybe now I know why the digital ones have their swings, thanks Penturner for the enlightenment.

2 more days before lockdown and my problem is not the temps, it is the humidity. I have been practicing trying to get it to go a little higher everyday as I have been running it low on purpose and thought I would raise it gradually. (bad idea??? who knows) but I can't seem to get it to go above 50%.

Time will tell all. Good luck with your hatch. I have a broody hen as well and I bet she gets a better hatch rate than I do.