Tempature question

[jrskihog]

I have searched and see a lot of different answers on this, this is our second incubation attempt the first time we had only 1 hatch out of 33 eggs the rest were quitters, we thought the temp might be off, we also had hi humidity on the last attempt with some condensation on some eggs. We bought a thermal coupler thermometer (k band) that is certified for this attempt, question is the new thermometer shows the Air temp in the incubator between 99 to 102 depending on the time I look at it, if you touch one of the eggs with the therocoupler thermometer and shows the egg temp between 95 to 96°. I had put in a wireless thermometer also and that also tracks humidity, the wireless thermometer shows the temp at 93 the thermometer on the incubator shows 95.5, I do Believe that the thermometer is touching egg but when the eggs turn it sometimes falls between the eggs, we have a farm innovators model 4250 with fan and egg turner. We are also incubating at 7500 feet, we have relocated the incubator into a spare room out of drafts and sunlight last time it was in the same room as our wood burning stove so the room had hi flucations of heat, we set the heat in the bedroom (electric heat) and keep door closed this time. So do I go off of airtemp in the incubator or egg temp?

TIA

 

[junebuggena]

Calibrate your thermometers to figure out which one is most accurate. The incubator should be as close to 99.5 as you can possible get it.

 

[jrskihog]

Calibrate your thermometers to figure out which one is most accurate. The incubator should be as close to 99.5 as you can possible get it.

Would you get the airtemp inside the incubator to 99.5 or the egg temp, I didn’t think there would be a difference between airtemp and egg temp but there is.

 

[junebuggena]

You measure air temp, not the egg temp.

 

[oregonkat]

We are also incubating at 7500 feet,

I think there is an article on BYC about incubating at higher elevations. Are the eggs you are incubating from a local source at about the same elevation as yours?

 

[oregonkat]

:http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/2908/incubating-eggs-at-high-altitudes/

This might help.

 

[oregonkat]

Are you incubating eggs that came from a similar altitude as yours?

 

[jrskihog]

Are you incubating eggs that came from a similar altitude as yours?

Yes they are eggs we collected form our flock, I will read that article I think I read a different one. Yes from what I read if you get eggs from a lower altitude the hatch rate is much lower, we collected these eggs over a 3 day period. We have 4 eggs that we couldn’t get before one of us left for work (they usually lay later in the day on cold days if at all) and it was a high of 34 and a low of 18 they didn’t freeze but were very cold when we collected them, we maked those to see if it has a influence on hatch/fertility.

 

[oregonkat]

Please post your progression through incubation of these next eggs. It will be interesting to see how different your process is compared to lower altitude hatching. I'm glad that these eggs are yours I would hate for you to have to go through another difficult and disappointing hatch from shipped eggs from lower down. Humidity is BIG for you up there so make sure your hygrometer is calibrated. I dont know if the calibration numbers change at higher altitudes for hygrometers but it would be worth finding out. Temp needs to be from the air in the incubator not the egg. Good luck.

 

[jrskihog]

Please post your progression through incubation of these next eggs. It will be interesting to see how different your process is compared to lower altitude hatching. I'm glad that these eggs are yours I would hate for you to have to go through another difficult and disappointing hatch from shipped eggs from lower down. Humidity is BIG for you up there so make sure your hygrometer is calibrated. I dont know if the calibration numbers change at higher altitudes for hygrometers but it would be worth finding out. Temp needs to be from the air in the incubator not the egg. Good luck.

Will do, we have 22 eggs in now, it is hard to keep the humidity level, I had read a few posts I about low humidity incubating, maybe if this doesn’t work I will try that route, we prob should have gotten a different incubator even though the reviews were good on this one, looks like we should have between 70-80% hatch rate with the eggs that are fertile, would be happy with 50%, today outside humidity is 26% and tomorrow around 17%