Setting Eggs/ Temperature Help

[KinderKar]

Hi my kindergarteners and I are set our eggs yesterday. We seem to have run into temperature problems. We have 2 incubators with automatic egg turners. In each incubator there is a digital thermometer tied to the egg turner as well as the one that came with incubators that you lay on top of the eggs. In one of the the digital one reads at 97 and the regular one at 105 ish.
And in the other is 95 for the digital and 102ish. I am driving myself crazy. Which one should I go by and try to target for 99 degrees? Thanks for any help you can give us.

 

[Ridgerunner]

None of them until they are calibrated. I never trust a thermometer until it’s been calibrated against something I really trust, such as one of those old medical thermometers.

 

[lazy gardener]

Ditto what RR said. You have got to calibrate. I like to calibrate against an old fashioned medical mercury bulb thermometer, or a new fangled digital medical thermometer at 100*. I do this by putting the bulb or digital in a cup of water at 100*, and then add the one I'm calibrating. You need to be sure to give them time to acclimate, and then make your math adjustments. With a thermometer that can't be immersed, you need to calibrate in the incubator before putting your eggs in. Be sure all thermometer bulbs or probes are in the exact same location and then do your math. It's a little harder to do in the bator, but doable. My preference is to have a calibrated bulb first, and then match any probes that can't be immersed to that. An other common mistake (IMO) is to use the same battery powered thermometer you used last year, and assume that it's still just as accurate. A weak battery or other electrical issue could throw your temp off. CALIBRATE, CALIBRATE, CALIBRATE!!!!!

 

[KinderKar]

Thanks for your advice. I should have asked that question before when I could have actually done it the correct way. I'm out of my league when it comes to calibrating. I have lots to learn about for next time. On Friday, I did set up the incubators to run them for the weekend. When I came in on Monday Morning the digital ones said 99 and 97 degrees. It also shows the high and low for the weekend. high was 102 and low was 93 on both of them the high and lows were the same. It stayed at 99 degrees for the morning so in the afternoon at 1:30 we put the eggs in and then that is when the trouble started with the one digital reading at 97 and the regular thermometer one at 105. And in the other is 95 for the digital and 102ish on the regular thermometer. Now I'm just trying to do damage control. I just changed the batteries to new ones in the digital thermometers like you said now what do I do? This is what it is showing now its only been about 25 minutes. Sorry the pictures turned out crazy. The first two are incubator 1 and the second 2 are incubator 2. Thanks for your help and patience everyone.

 

[lazy gardener]

You also need to be aware that you will get fluctuation when eggs go in. That's why it's good to have everything up and running, calibrated for a couple of days before setting eggs. I like to put a sealed quart bottle of warm water in when I run it before setting eggs. It provides a heat sink to help with stabalization of temps. Important to not adjust temp for first 24 hours after setting eggs, unless temp goes too high.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are they still air (no fan) or forced air (fan) incubators? If it is a forced air it shouldn’t matter but in a still air where you take the temperature is critical. Hot air rises so you can get a lot of difference in temperature based on elevation.

In either case I suggest getting a medical thermometer that you know is calibrated (or another one as long as you absolutely trust it) and put it in the incubator with the other thermometer. Let them stabilize and compare readings. The medical thermometer will only give you a high reading so you need to watch that.

If the medical thermometer reads 99 and the other reads 97, your other one is reading two degrees low. Whatever reading you see on it, add two degrees. If it reads three degrees high, subtract three.

I’ll include these links.

Rebel’s Thermometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/ThermometerCalibration.html
Rebel’s Hygrometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/HygrometerCalibration.html