Still air incubator, possibly for hours - chances of survival?

[KRack]

So I borrowed a still air incubator from a friend. Left the house for a few hours, and came back to see the thermometer at 103. I have 3 thermometers and the temperature seems spotty within the incubator (which makes sense), ranging from 101-103. Some eggs were in the 103 temperature though.

Anyone have successful hatches after a similar experience? I don’t know how I’ll do this for 21 days. I feel glued to this stinkin incubator lol.

 

[mcdze]

i wouldnt risk it if i was just starting a batch, id start over with fresh eggs .. 'after' i gave it 2-3 days to be sure ive figured out how to get it stable and worked out how to raise and lower temps a degree or so as it goes along .. ive found with a good batch of eggs, once they get going good, the biological processes will actually tend to raise temp .. so got to check it id say twice a day, and know beforehand how to gently raise and lower temp on the fly so to speak ..

 

[KRack]

i wouldnt risk it if i was just starting a batch, id start over with fresh eggs .. 'after' i gave it 2-3 days to be sure ive figured out how to get it stable and worked out how to raise and lower temps a degree or so as it goes along .. ive found with a good batch of eggs, once they get going good, the biological processes will actually tend to raise temp .. so got to check it id say twice a day, and know beforehand how to gently raise and lower temp on the fly so to speak ..

I think I’ll give it to day 7 to candle and see where I’m at with this batch. I do think that’s what happened, the eggs raised the temps. I had it going 3-4 days beforehand to get an understanding of how it worked and how to keep it was stable. Then about 24-48 hours after the eggs were in it seemed to spike some.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Warm air rises. In a forced air incubator the fan keeps the air stirred up so the temperature should be the same throughout. That may not always work in some incubators or a homemade one, but in the good ones it works pretty well.

In a still air incubator it's important at what elevation you take the temperature. The normal recommendation is 101.5 F taken at the top of the eggs.

I don't trust any thermometer unless it has been calibrated. Were those three thermometers calibrated? Were they all at the same elevation?

The older and larger the embryos get the more they generate their own heat. To start with there isn't enough living mass to generate much heat but the closer you get to hatch the more heat they generate. If those eggs were in there less than two weeks they are not going to generate any noticeable heat.

The way the incubator is supposed to work, the heater comes on when the temperature drops below a certain level and then goes off when it warms up to a certain level. This is usually set at a very tight difference so it can cycle a lot. If something else light living body mass or a turner motor generates additional heat then it may take a slightly longer time for the thermostat to cycle. But the thermostat and thermometers are not going to be in exactly the same place. Depending on that placement you might see some differences.

In commercial hatcheries where they may have 60,000 or even 120,000 eggs in one incubator this generated heat is a big issue. They have to get the heat out of the middle of the incubator or hatcher so it doesn't cook the nearby eggs. Our incubators are not packed that tightly so it's not really an issue for us.

I don't know why your incubator spiked like that if it really did. I don't have any suggestions other than to take the temperature in a still air where you should and use calibrated thermometers.

 

[KRack]

Warm air rises. In a forced air incubator the fan keeps the air stirred up so the temperature should be the same throughout. That may not always work in some incubators or a homemade one, but in the good ones it works pretty well.

In a still air incubator it's important at what elevation you take the temperature. The normal recommendation is 101.5 F taken at the top of the eggs.

I don't trust any thermometer unless it has been calibrated. Were those three thermometers calibrated? Were they all at the same elevation?

The older and larger the embryos get the more they generate their own heat. To start with there isn't enough living mass to generate much heat but the closer you get to hatch the more heat they generate. If those eggs were in there less than two weeks they are not going to generate any noticeable heat.

The way the incubator is supposed to work, the heater comes on when the temperature drops below a certain level and then goes off when it warms up to a certain level. This is usually set at a very tight difference so it can cycle a lot. If something else light living body mass or a turner motor generates additional heat then it may take a slightly longer time for the thermostat to cycle. But the thermostat and thermometers are not going to be in exactly the same place. Depending on that placement you might see some differences.

In commercial hatcheries where they may have 60,000 or even 120,000 eggs in one incubator this generated heat is a big issue. They have to get the heat out of the middle of the incubator or hatcher so it doesn't cook the nearby eggs. Our incubators are not packed that tightly so it's not really an issue for us.

I don't know why your incubator spiked like that if it really did. I don't have any suggestions other than to take the temperature in a still air where you should and use calibrated thermometers.

I don’t know how to calibrate the thermometers? They were the same before going in the incubator if that matters.

I also don’t know why it went up, it had been steady for days. Between 100-101. But the incubator itself didn’t get the best reviews and I’ve noticed since I’ve been home the heat has been allowed to rise higher than it had previously.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know how to calibrate the thermometers?

If you do an internet search you can find instructions using ice water and boiling water. I don't like to use those methods since they are not near incubation temperature and many of our thermometers don't read at those temperatures anyway. I use an old medical thermometer that has been calibrated and compare the temperatures when that is put in the incubator.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

How is it going?