Temp question bator hit 103

[Lifesong Farm]

I set up my new incubator and I thought I had the temps set and leveled out. I have 5 eggs in (not sure if they are even viable) and even though I thought it had leveled out it spent most of last night at 103. Then today it spent most of the day at 98. I now have it at 100 and holding. It has stayed level for an hour so I think I finally have it down. My question is IF the eggs were/are viable how much will the temp of 103 and 98 affect them? Oh and the humidity has been about 50 -55%.

If the 103 may have baked them I have someone giving me some Buckeye eggs on Tues to attemt a test hatch.

 

[5acrehome]

the 103 will not have "baked" them if they are in the earliest of incubation stage Example day 1. The variation that I have seen and still had a good hatch are 95 to 101 with about 35-45% humidity. I have not had any problems hatching eggs in the tractor supply incubator here in Florida. currently I have a clutch of 23 in it because the broody decided juicy bugs and no tethers were better than sitting for the last 4 days of the cycle with temps in the 20's.

something you have to understand as well about your incubator is that it was stable before you added the eggs and that is very good. if you think of the eggs as ice cubes for a hot beverage the cubes cool the incubator before the incubator has a chance to bring them up to temp. when you add cold eggs even 60-80 temp eggs to a 100 degree incubator it's going to drop in temp. watch your setup for about 2-3 hours every 30 minutes adjusting down if need be or up. the temperature swings shouldn't take longer than that.

if you want to you can get a heating pad out or your oven and stablize one or the other to 100 degrees then bring the eggs up to temp that way then put them in the incubator but I just add them to the incubator and watch it for a few hours until the eggs "melt" into the right temp.