please help me get things straight

[chkinut]

i have a 1588 Hovabator. my eggs are coming in the mail this week. i hooked up my bator early today. i have a Flukers digital therm/hyg that is reading 98.0F and 45% humidity. I also have a thermometer that came with the bator and it's reading 101.F. THEN, i have a non-digital hygrometer (old fashioned looking, with a dial that i bought at petsmart today) and it reads 51%. I'm guessing that i should not take the Flukers too seriously. and another question pertaining to humidity.....should it be 35 - 50% days 1-18 and 65-70% at lockdown?

 

[GiGi123]

I had that same problem.
3 thermometer 3 very different temps.

Gigi.

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

Just my experience~~but if you're incubating Silkie eggs, you want the humidity at 42% and temp at 100 the first 18 days; bump the humidity up to 62% during lockdown.

 

[chkinut]

no, i'm going to be incubating BCM eggs. last year i incubated 2 sets of shipped silkie eggs, both with poor hatch rates. that's why i wanna make sure i have everything set straight. i read somewhere that because BCM have a thick coating on the outside of their eggs, that i should decrease the humidity. what do u guys think of that?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you can calibrate the thermometer, you might have more confidence in it. I have a 1588 also and the paperwork that came with it said to ignore the thermometer they sent with it.
I'm not familiar with the Flukers. Some thermometers are intended to be accurate within 2 degrees. Those are the ones that you use for outside temperatures. Some thermometers are meant to be accurate within 0.1 degree Fahrenheit. That is the type you need. This does not mean they are within 0.1 degrees of the actual temoerature. That means they will read within 0.1 degree of the same temperature if they go back in the exact same conditions. For example, if the temperature in the incubator is 99.5 degrees and the thermometer reads 2 degrees too low, it will read 97.5 degrees. That's why you calibrate them, to know how to adjust what you are seeing so you can get the real temperature.

Calibrate a Thermometer
http://www.allfoodbusiness.com/calibrating_thermometers.php

Since the 1588 is a forced air, the recommended temperature is 99.5 degrees.

Humidity is a little harder. For whatever reasons, the same humidities do not always give the same results for us. I just followed the instructions that came with mine, filling the center reservoir for incubation then filling the ones they showed for lockdown. For me, that worked out to be on the low to mid 40's for incubation and mid-60's during lockdown.

 

[oldtimeway]

Oh my! All this fancy equipment. I have my old Sears and Roebuck porcelain mercury filled incubator thermometer and never knew what the humidity was and successfully hatched many thousands of ducks and geese. Now I read about all this fancy stuff and I'm thinking it's a wonder I hatched anything, eh? I guess ignorance is bliss.

I have a houng nephew and he has one of these little round incubators that I call a frying pan. He uses a rectal thermometer for people. He can drop it in through a vent hole in the cover andl lift it out with a string attached to the end of it. That's a very accurate and cheap thermometer.

 

[chkinut]

i think that's what i'll do. I DID fill the center reservoir this morning, and my humidity reads 45% on the digital. so it sounds right. oh, i also have the red plug in. should i take it out? if the readings are going well, maybe i should leave it in? i just re-read my instructions that came with the bator and i saw the picture of which troughs to fill during lockdown. i'll just go with that. and did you have good hatch rates?

 

[funnybirds]

I got an Acurite from Wal-Mart for about 8 bucks. It reads both temp and humidity.
So far been very happy with it.
I like the older thermometers and a string idea though.
Chicken hatchers are very industrious people.