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Son Changed Thermostat!! Eggs getting cold!!

Discussion in 'Incubating & Hatching Eggs' started by MamaDragon, Aug 8, 2008.

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  1. Aug 8, 2008 #1
    MamaDragon

    MamaDragon Songster

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    Aug 4, 2008
    Camden, AR
    HELP!!! I've got one of those styrofoam incubators with the L-shaped thermostat control (with a wing-nut at the bottom to secure it in place).

    My son "I just moved it a little, Mom, Honest!" has turned down the temp, and I've got no earthly idea which direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) to turn it to increase the temp and maybe be able to save the rest of the eggs/hatchlings. It was already set to hatching temp when I inherited it, and never needed to adjust it.

    Murphy's Law of Children strikes again!! [​IMG]

    I have gotten an accurate thermometer / humidity gauge now, and I'm hoping for the best.
    Kathy

    The more you don't want a child to mess with something, the more likely it is that the child will mess with it anyway. Murphy Law #52
     
  2. Aug 8, 2008 #2
    IloveTravis

    IloveTravis Songster

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    I dont know which direction to turn it, but I can tell you not to worry [​IMG] The eggs getting cold for a bit can only delay the hatch. I'm sure your chickies will be fine [​IMG]
     
  3. Aug 8, 2008 #3
    monarc23

    monarc23 Coturnix Obsessed

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    *hugs* i feel ya!!!! Well I dont have a child, however the battery ran out in my thermometer/humidity guage...well not completely but enough it was no longer reading the proper temp. My temp went down to 96!!!! for several hours!!!! Chicks are still alive though *PHew*!!!

    I hope you figure it out (the temp) i'd be so scared too I dare not touch the nob thing on mine, it took me over a week to get the temp adjsuted right in mine (however mine is way more annoying than yours sounds mine is this thin nob...and it's so hard to turn that any effort to turn it, and you turn it way too high or way too low i hates it! LOL!

    heres hoping your chicks are fine! [​IMG]


    [​IMG]:fl:fl:fl:fl
     
  4. Aug 8, 2008 #4
    ginasmarans

    ginasmarans Songster

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    Turn it in one direction one turn and if the light doesn't come on,turn it one turn in the other direction. Maybe you'll be lucky and your son did not turn it more thn one turn.I'm thinking clockwise turns it up,but I'm not sure.
     
  5. Aug 8, 2008 #5
    ClosetChicks

    ClosetChicks Hatching

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    I have one like that and it is counter clockwise to increase and clockwise to decrease (which isn't at all how the little picture on it looks like it's describing) but I learned the hard way and did what your son did.

    Try to get him to admit to you if he turned it one full time, two, etc. and adjust by 1/4 or 1/2 turns accordingly.

    I have no idea what I'm doing, just so you know, but I did manage to figure out how not to screw that up again and our incubators sound similar.
     
  6. Aug 8, 2008 #6
    MamaDragon

    MamaDragon Songster

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    Camden, AR
    Thanks Gang for the response......

    I've gotten it back up to 98, it was down to 88 degrees. I'm slowly inching it up from here on, so that I don't get it TOO hot and do even more damage. It's a still-air, and it had been stable at 99 by the old thermometer. It hatched out two at that setting, so it must have been pretty close to right at that setting.

    I'm afraid to mess with it much more tonight for fear of cooking them while I sleep.

    Do I remember right that a still-air needs to be at 101 degrees??

    Kathy [​IMG]
    (If this last week had been happening to someone else, I'd be laughing my rear off. Such is life!)
     
  7. Aug 8, 2008 #7
    luvmychicknkids

    luvmychicknkids Canning Squirrel

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    I tend to keep mine at about 100 (still air) becasue if the house temp fluctuates the bator temp will too. I would rather have them cool a tiny bit than heat up too much and cook. But yeah, 101 is what you are told to set them at.
     
  8. Aug 8, 2008 #8
    MamaDragon

    MamaDragon Songster

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    Aug 4, 2008
    Camden, AR
    We've Got a Peeper!!! [​IMG]

    Went in to turn the Other Eggs, and heard a cheeping!..... thru candling and listening real close found one that's peeping now, and two more that may be by morning.

    What a Relief!!

    Temps are hovering between 98 - 100, and humidity between 37 - 45% i've drizzled a bit of water in one of the channels, and misted it everytime I go turn the eggs..... once these last three hatch out, I'll tinker more with it, but I'm afraid to do too much for fear of loosing the peeps. (also lost another one, it candled as developing on wednesday, but the shell had cracked, and it was oozing... so got that out of there before it exploded and made a huge mess!)
     

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