I am new to incubators!! I have set up my Brinsea Mini II Advance, set the temperature to 37.5 and plan to leave it running until Sunday before setting my call duck eggs. We live in a house with no heating unless we put the fires on. My alarm keeps going off telling me the room temperature is too low, but it's reading that the internal temperature is staying at 37.5C does the room temp really matter if the internal temp is staying where it should?
Short answer, no, it doesn’t matter as long as the internal temperature is correct. Now for some discussion. The heater on those incubators are designed to keep up in certain ambient conditions. They will actually handle lower temperatures but how much lower will depend on a few things. How cold does it get and how long does it stay that cold, for example. A blowing wind would be bad. How often are you opening in it? I’m not familiar with that Brinsea but using warm water instead of cold might help when you add water. Another potential issue, cold air is usually drier than warm air. If dry cold air is entering the incubator, it could cause a little more moisture loss in the egg during incubation. Brinsea incubators are usually pretty good at handling moisture and humidity, but if you have hatch issues that look like they are caused by low humidity, this could be a reason. I don’t know about duck eggs but I’d assume they are similar to chicken eggs. Chicken eggs don’t need fresh air in the incubator the first week or so, but as the chick develops inside the egg it begins to need fresh air exchange through the porous shell. The more it develops the more fresh air it needs for oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange. Brinsea have really good insulation, but you can help your cause by using more insulation. Maybe wrap a blanket around the incubator, something like that. But don’t block the vents. I’ve used my Hovabator 1588 in a place where the temperature occasionally drops below the recommended 70F (21C) by a little, upper 60’s, and it has been able to keep up. I recently hatched 22 out of 26 eggs that showed development in those conditions. It’s better if the ambient temperature is where it should be, you are taking a risk if it gets too cool in there. But just because you don’t have ideal conditions doesn’t mean you are guaranteed lousy results. I wish you luck.
