I am so frustrated!!!!!!! My eggs are on Day 20, next to them is my little brooder with the quail babies (nice sounds for my eggs to listen to)...and when I checked the temp right before bedtime- it read 108.7.......so, I flipped out, lifted the lid and said OH NO I COOKED THEM!!! My husband, being the ever understanding man that he is, nonchalantly said, "Oh, I thought you meant the live ones." Typical uninvolved partner. He doesn't understand the deep attachment I have developed over the past three weeks with these eggs. The eggs are blue, its very difficult to see inside. Pretty much all I could see was the air cell. What drives me crazy is - I havent touched the controls on this incubator. Nothing has changed. It just decided to go wacko. Well, the temps changed so much. From 99 to 108 to 97 to 105 to 101 within twenty minutes...so I took the temp gauge from the other incubator in the other room and stuck the probe inside the first incubator. Both probes were at the same spot inside the incubator. One reads 102.7 the other is reading 100.0 I guess they need new batteries. So, I have no idea what the temps are inside there, or how high they got or if I hard boiled them.
I did find that the temps went up drastically the last couple of days, don't understand it, but they did. I know the chicks are producing a lot of their own heat, but I don't know why the wafer doesn't adjust for that. Also had a malfuntioning thermometer one night said it went up to 120. I also had a therm-hygrometer with min/max showed it hadn't been above 100. If it was just for a few minutes, it won't hurt as long as inside the egg didn't get too high. With wild fluctuations like that, there's a good chance the thermometer is wacko. Good luck, let us know how it comes out.
Sorry about your near Heart attack of your incubating temps What kind of incubator are you using? Just Curious. I have one that I read a bad review of here & there, but also read Great reviews on & I just LOVE it now having got it. It swings maybe one degree downward then shortly back up. Having an electronic thermostat. Sounds like a bad thermometer tho, not everything electronic lets you know when it needs batteries, we find that out when they go haywire. Hope you'll have Peeping Peeps soon.
Thanks all..here I prided myself on having such accurate thermometer/hygrometers...I am using the still- air Little Giant. Not the best, but it has worked all season. I have no idea what the actual temps are- of course, because I am on vacation, our weather is whacked out. Rain rain rain, and then last night- temps down to 50....about 25 degree fluctuation in a matter of hours. Next week, when my eggs are either hatched, or tossed- and I am back at work, the temps will be dry and summer again.
I would say not to get overly worried. First, it takes time for the outside temp to become the inside temp. Second, it was for a relatively short period. Believe me, I had some wild temp swings in my first hatch, believing that I had certainly cooked them. However I had an 87% hatch with all chicks in good health. You will need to be vigilant the last couple of days as the temps do go up considerably.
Incubating & hatching will be Wonderful.... if it turns out with chicks, lol. This is my 1st hatch incubating. We researched incubators & were at first leaning toward a Little Giant.... seemed it wasn't much different than the Hovabators. Just less expensive than them. But Hubby researched & after a while decided a Brower Top Hatch was best. That's what we have now. It's so consistent in temps & holds really well with the humidity too. It'll be great to see a good hatch in the end... we'll see tho. I'm on day 5 I believe. We have an indoor/outdoor thermometer that we use for the weather, like most use here with the probe on a wire for our outdoor temp & it does go weird when it needs a new battery. I have a Accurate battery thermometer for my bator inside temp & humidity temp & it seems to be doing well (I have 2 other reg thermometers in there too), But also have new AA batteries if it ends up needing one. There's alot of threads post here I was reading about Little Giants, & alot of people swear by them & they had alot of good tips on incubating with them. Good luck on your hatch
I have a Little Giant and my temp went up to 110. A lady from Texas told me not to give up because the temp in Tx gets to 110 and her hens still lay on the eggs. Well I didn't give up and still had 18 out of 40 hatch. But my temp could have been 110 all night because I didn't see it until morning. So don't give up. Wishing you luck.
