New homemade incubator first eggs temperature drop

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I am new to BYC. I have 7 chickens that I bought from TSC and found out I bought 3 meat birds and 3 barred rocks. So the cornish rock crosses are due to be dinner in a few weeks so I did a lot of research on this site and decided to build my own incubator and hatch eggs. I used several ideas from members here (MissPrissy, speckledhen, GopherBoy) to make my own, thank you so much for putting all this information here. This site is a great asset. Now after building and stabilizing my temps in the incubator the temps are 99 to 101 with 55% humidity. The homemade water wiggler temp was 99.5 to 99.7 consistently. So I bought my eggs and received them, let them rest for 8 hours and set them in last night. Now this morning my water wiggler is reading 98.7. I adjusted the temp a smidge (very slight) and it has upped my temp to 99.2. Is this okay? Is this supposed to happen like this? If I set them last night at 11:00 PM would today be day 0? Also do I need hardware cloth on the bottom of the styrofoam incubator or just some towels or the drawer liner like some other use. Is there a purpose in the hardware cloth on the floor? I have lights and fan and water separated by hardware cloth. Thanks for your help on this. I have looked all morning and could not find a thread with this type of question.

 

[Ruditchka]

99.2 in the water wiggler is fine, the temp may have dropped due to the eggs drawing the heat from the bator while stabilizing their internal temps. Keep an eye on it for a few more hours, as it may still be rising and not completely stabilized at the temps you had read last night. Good Luck!

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

You were right, the temp had to be adjusted again as it went up to 100.1 and I bumped it down a smidge again! My internal temps were 99-102 which is high, right? But the water wiggler read 100.1. So I hope it's okay. Does anyone have suggestions on hardware cloth in the bottom and would today be day 0 or day 1 of incubation? Thanks.

 

[patandchickens]

Disclaimer: I am SO not an expert here - I am in the throes of my first ever hatch right now, which looks like it will produce a grand total of one (1) live chick

I notice in all the background reading I did before setting my eggs, one is frequently urged not to adjust the incubator during the first 24 hrs or so of setting the eggs in there, because the temp may drop and take a while to come back up due to the thermal inertia of the (initially cooler) eggs. So I think it is perfectly fine that your temperature dropped a bit at the beginning and you should probably keep an eagle eye on things over the next day or two to make sure you haven't overcorrected, so that once they are up to temp the 'bator isn't actually running too warm.

My understanding is that people use hardwarecloth to keep eggs (and eventual chicks) up off any condensation that should slide down to the floor of the incubator (egg sitting in spot of water = bacterial growth = bad things happening to egg), and to promote good air circulation. But, what do I know

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Ruditchka]

Today can be counted as day 1 since they started last night. Tonight at 11, they'll be into day 2! 102 degrees is OK for the eggs to have handled no problem. Not sure of cloth you're talking about but people here talk of using shelving paper(as in a cupboard) for some applications.

 

[LoveMyBirds]

hangin'witthepeeps :

You were right, the temp had to be adjusted again as it went up to 100.1 and I bumped it down a smidge again! My internal temps were 99-102 which is high, right? But the water wiggler read 100.1. So I hope it's okay. Does anyone have suggestions on hardware cloth in the bottom and would today be day 0 or day 1 of incubation? Thanks.

Yeah, when you have new eggs added because of the coolness of those eggs the temp will drop until the eggs are warmed to the correct degrees..

24 hours make a day..

I just finished hatching one bunch yesterday... Putting more in as soon as I get off the Internet..

Good luck to you..​

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

So to clarify a little.... I have the hand made turner like GopherBoy so they are sitting in a box in egg crates. On day 18 I am going to "quickly" take out the hand turner and set them on the bottom of incubator. So I need something in the bottom to keep them out of the condensation? What about paper towels and shelf liner? By the way, water wiggler is still at 100.1. Leave it or try to bump it down? Thanks for all your help.

 

[Ruditchka]

If your thermostat is that sensitive, I'd leave it. =/- o.5 degree is fine anyway(I'd rather be 1/2 high than low). Maybe the paper towels under a "breathable" shelf liner would do what your trying to achieve.(?)

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

So I turned the eggs for the 1st time last night and when I went to bed I put a blanket on top of incubator. I thought since I am not running the heat at night maybe the temp drop was because it is cooler in the house. So I got up at 2 AM and the water wiggler temp was 101.1. I opened the vent I made out of a pill bottle like GopherBoy and cooled it off and took off the blanket. So now it is running down to 99.2 and up to 100.5 during the on/off cycle of the light with NO blanket on top. Should this be good? Do water wiggler temps fluctuate this much. Could it be that I'm using a ZipLock bag filled with water and not the water snake like I have seen here? I'm going to Wal-Mart at lunch today to get a water snake. Thanks for your advice.