Nurture Right 360 Incubator Issues

[MerryFeather]

I have 2 NR 360 incubators. The first one I set with four duck eggs and all was going well until day 11 or 12 when 3 of the eggs died. I had 3 thermometers going in the incubator so as far as I knew the temp and humidity were fine. I thought perhaps something went wrong with the incubator so I got another incubator (same type) and started 4 more duck eggs while the lone remaining egg stayed in the original incubator. I also got bluetooth thermometers that I could track with graphs the temperature and humidity. The second incubator went fine until the same stage as before and then over days 12 to 13 they all died. It looked the same as before. The veins started going away and clumping while the embryo was still alive and then the embryos died about a day later. I had started taking the egg temp itself in the evening with a human ear thermometer. The eggs themselves were actually reading in the 98 degree range even though my thermometer and incubator were reading a degree to 2 degrees higher. I then got an alcohol thermometer and I have been running the incubator empty for a couple days watching the temps. In order to get the alcohol thermometer to read 99.5 I have to keep the incubator running at 101. If I run it that hot for a future try will it be more prone to spiking? My other problem is that if I run it higher then the humidity sits at 65 or higher with just the A section filled and I can't get it down unless I let it run dry and then it is in the 10s or 20s. How do I get the humidity to 45 to 55%? Are these common issues with this incubator or am I doing something wrong? Thankfully the 1 remaining duck egg from the first hatch successfully hatched this weekend! But I really want to try again for more friends for this one.

 

[junior67]

Did you calibrate any of the thermometers that you were watching? I am new so don't know much but I was told to calibrate the thermometers that I am using inside to check.

 

[MerryFeather]

Did you calibrate any of the thermometers that you were watching? I am new so don't know much but I was told to calibrate the thermometers that I am using inside to check.

I calibrated them against each other and they were reading the same at the beginning of the incubation. But as the weeks went on they weren't the same anymore.

 

[junior67]

I calibrated them against each other and they were reading the same at the beginning of the incubation. But as the weeks went on they weren't the same anymore.

did you check to see if those were right with an ice water test or boiling water test? They may all be off which then would mean you aren't incubating at the right temp. I checked mine and in order to have my incubator around 99.5 I need to run it at 100.5, even then it seems to run a little low but if I put it to 101 then it seems to run a little high...... this is with a calibrated thermometer.

 

[MerryFeather]

did you check to see if those were right with an ice water test or boiling water test? They may all be off which then would mean you aren't incubating at the right temp. I checked mine and in order to have my incubator around 99.5 I need to run it at 100.5, even then it seems to run a little low but if I put it to 101 then it seems to run a little high...... this is with a calibrated thermometer.

Thanks for the reply. I did try the ice water test but it doesn't seem to be as accurate as I need to calibrate them in such small increments.