Temp Gun Incubation Question

[sideWing]

Hello All!

First time chicken egg incubator here. I have hatched out many a leopard gecko, but never a chicken. At least not yet. I modified my DIY leopard gecko incubator and now have a couple dozen eggs in the bator.

I found out that on day 1 my digital thermometer was bad or at least not reading near the temp the eggs are. I had a second thermometer in there and since it's a still air I let it settle at about 102 degrees. I think I have a variation of about 1 degree as the incubator heat comes on and off with the thermostat I have hooked up. I decided to use a temp gun on the shells to confirm proper incubation temps. I'm shooting the eggs at the meridian or middle of the egg and I'm getting temps from 98 near the edges of the bator to mostly 100 or 99.5, 99.8 in the middle of the bator. I would say 85% of them are in this range.

The question. Are these temp gun shell temps correct and within a safe range?

Thanks,
Sid

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hello All!

First time chicken egg incubator here. I have hatched out many a leopard gecko, but never a chicken. At least not yet. I modified my DIY leopard gecko incubator and now have a couple dozen eggs in the bator.

I found out that on day 1 my digital thermometer was bad or at least not reading near the temp the eggs are. I had a second thermometer in there and since it's a still air I let it settle at about 102 degrees. I think I have a variation of about 1 degree as the incubator heat comes on and off with the thermostat I have hooked up. I decided to use a temp gun on the shells to confirm proper incubation temps. I'm shooting the eggs at the meridian or middle of the egg and I'm getting temps from 98 near the edges of the bator to mostly 100 or 99.5, 99.8 in the middle of the bator. I would say 85% of them are in this range.

The question. Are these temp gun shell temps correct and within a safe range?

Thanks,
Sid

I don't know how the laser thermometer guns work on eggs. Assuming that they are accurate try reading the temperature on a horizontal egg at the highest point or part. Hot air rises and cold air falls so the top or highest point of an egg in a still air incubator should register the highest temps. A slightly higher temp at the tippy top of an egg laying on its side is ideal in most still air incubators. Therefor the bottom 1/2 of the egg is slightly cooler. Hope that this helps. This is another reason to mark one side of your eggs with an X and the opposite side of the egg with an O. This means that you can reliably turn each egg enough each day to prevent the embryo from sticking to the membrane. Setting hens shuffle their eggs like a casino shuffles cards. I think that I read one time every 30 minutes or so. When adding water the last 3 days I suspect that pre-heated water will result in more uniform heat and humidity.