Quail homemade incubator. Having trouble maintaining a temperature.

[smallbluejellybean]

Hi everyone,
I found a great way to make a cheap homemade incubator for my button quail eggs, as my buttons started to use them as footballs the other day. I saved 20, but the problem now is if I increase the temperature to try to get to 101 degrees it wants to keep going. It got to 103 and I freaked out and took all the insulation off it as quick as I could. I have been able to maintain a steady 99 degrees and with help with some sponges I am maintaining a humunity of 50 percent. (before the sponges it was up to 70 percent. I am turning them around 4 times a day.
Will they still have a chance at the lower temp of 99?
Or should I just throw the whole lot out?
Also can button eggs be floated? I have candle the lighter eggs (saw vein work in those).
HELP PLEASE

 

[saddina]

99 should be fine.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Before I got my homemade incubator "tuned-up", my temp fluxuated from 99-103 for several days & still had a successful hatch with chickens & pheasants. The way I solved the problem of temperature fluxuation is, I wired 2 wafer thermostats to my heater. The temperature held steady then.

 

[canter6]

I use a dimmer switch to control the temp in my homadebator.
103 is pretty high, but should not be deadly. Some where between 98 and 102 should be fine. Just don't expect an early or on time hatch at lower temps..
99 should be fine. Not optimal, but fine.

Candling any dark mottled eggs that show veins are keepers!
Floating? You are on your own there. I don't do it.

 

[Overeasyplz]

I had a lot of issues with my hot water therostat fluxing 6 or so degrees..I found jus1jack's page on thermo modification, and now my incubator holds steady. There are links to his page from my BYC homemade incubator page.

 

[smallbluejellybean]

Still holding steady at exactly 99.4 degres. I have tried to candle the darker and spotted eggs, but I can't see enough.
I float my canary eggs after 8 days with great sucess, some of them are so spotty and can't be candled. Will wait till they are 10 days and will float in the water in the incubator, so there will be no change in temp.
My little incubator is one I saw how to make off you tube. It was simple and successful with parrots.
I used a small square aquarium - filled the water half way. Put in a 150 watt aquarium heater (it goes up to 110, but if I put it say on 100 or more it fluctuates alot, so have it set on 99 where it is stable).
Then I have a ceramic dish floating with a large medical pad in it to cushion the eggs. Around the outside of the dish is sponge peices to stop the dish hitting the sides and floating around off center (the heater is in the center). And I have my themometer/humidity thingy there too. I cover it with a mesh cover that came with the tank (tank is intended for small reptiles/scorpions).
I then have it covered with thick towels on all sides, except the one side facing out with the themometer so I can check it without opening it.
Just a really simple rig, but its better than not trying at all.
I wasn't intending to incubate anyting myself. I was going to leave it for them to do, but there were so many eggs. I thought what a waste.
I would like at least a couple more males as I have one male to 3 females at the moment.
Thanks alot for your feedback, appreciate you time.