got my guinea eggs yesterday. the incubator was holding at 99.5 degrees with about 40% humidity. let the eggs settle. wife put them in at 10 pm. got home from a 16 hour shift this morning at 6:00am and went to turn the eggs. the temp was alittle higher than 101.5! tried to turn down the thermostat a hair and the temp actually went up to 104. opened the bator up to get the hot air out. spent the next half hour or so messing with the temp. i think i finally have it back around 99.5degrees. did this hurt the eggs? i don't see how i am going to be able to do this trouble free until the eggs hatch. i think i bought $40 worth of scrambled eggs.
I dont think you have anything to worry about. Its actually recommended that you run a still air at 101... Furthermore, they had only been in the bator for 8 hours or so, which means their really wasn't anything growing in there to begin with, so you probably didn't hurt anything.
Temps get weird the first few days rather commonly according to the folks who reassured me. just not over 105, that would be bad. Try to relax, mind you i'm half way done and still freaking. But the temps will stabilize in a couple to a few days as long as your house isn't a yoyo. Sun in the room or drafts can affect bator temps. hang in there, 101 wont scramble anything. All you can do is work with what you have, nature can be pretty forgiving. Do your best, try to breathe, and work in small steps, adjust wait 2-3 hours, see where it is, work with that. you're in a with a big group of first time hatchers and a lot of old pros. We just cling to each other, ask questions and hope. Even professional hatcheries flub hatches I had two hatcheries blow three hatches on me when i had chicks on order, even newbies get chicks to hatch. it may work it may not, you just do the best you can, learn and take notes and ask questions. GOOD LUCK. Best wishes for your hatch. Welcome to the insanity... Chere
well, it is day two. i have the humidity at 45% and the temp is cycling between 99.2 and 99.9. i don't want to keep opening up the bator to tweek the wafer thermostat so i will leave it there. the guinea eggs are in a paper carton with holes punched in the bottom and the top cut out to allow for air circulation. all i can do now is wait to see what happens. this is my first hatch so please give me some words of encouragement!!! thanks.
