tempature?- what do I follow 2 new flukers or old dial?

[opihiman911]

For my first hatch I set 10 eggs in an 1602 still air Hovabator with a turner. I used the dial thermometer that came with it. The heater would turn on at around 98 then turn off at around 100.5 and peak at 102-102.5, then fall back to 99. On this batch I got 50% hatch, 2 on day 21, 2 on day22 and 1 on early am day23. This told me me my temp was a little low since they were hatching late. I increased the temp control slightly about a 1/16 of a turn.

Second batch is 30 eggs in the same bator with a new turner and the temp bumped up 1/16 turn. I started this hatch 7 days ago. Same as above but the temp goes off around 101-101.5 and peaks at 103-103.5. I decided to get a pair of Fluker thermo/hygometers and put the in my bator on the outside arms of the turner as the middle 4 arms have the eggs. Left it overnight and this is what I found from the 2 flukers:
Current: 94.2, Max 97.4, Min 93.6, Humidity 43
Current: 91.3, max 95.8, Min 90.1, Humidity 42

The dial thermometer kept doing it thing of 98-103, my cheap dial hygrometer was saying 45%.

I did randomly candle a couple eggs and I did see air sacks top 1/4 in all but one and I did see a couple black dots and veins. I'll look at them better tonight when its dark.

So what do I do??

Instead of getting more precise and careful with my hatch, I'm even more confused

I'm more inclined to stay with the old dial thermometer as I know I had some sucess with it and am trying to dial it in. Since these were sitting on the bottom, and heat rises, what about unplugging the turner and balancing them on top of the eggs for an hour or two, just to see what I get. Does anyone know how to test these flukers and/or calibrate them? I know my dial one is close because I took my own temp and it said 99...

close enough

For now I guess its out with the new techno whiz solve all problems gadget and I'll stay with grandpa's old school equipment.

Any help or ideas.

Aloha,
Cory

 

[Poison Ivy]

Do you have a baby thermometer you could test with. I have a digital one I test with but my fluker's it right on with my temps in my r-com 20 and my hova-bator.

 

[arlee453]

I'd be more inclined to take the Fluker's temps. I've read other posts where the therm. that came with the bators are not as accurate as the flukers.

 

[opihiman911]

I just checked it again, I put both the flukers sid by side on one tray for the last hour and one says 95.4, the other 93.2

Which one do I follow??
I have a hard time believing that I was able to hatch some eggs at such a low temp, doesn't it have to be atleast 98.5 to start the incubation process??
I tried the baby thermometer, worked fine under my tounge 98.9, put it in the bator and turn it on and it says LO

I'm going to stop the turner for a while and balance the flukers in between and on top of the eggs for an hour or two and see what it says.
In the mean time I'm trying to track down a nurse friend of mine who has an infered thermal ear scanner to see what I get.
I'll post more later on.

Aloha,
Cory

 

[eggonomist]

IMHO a tympanic thermometer will not work in this instance. Most thermometers used in health care take an algorithm to guess (very accuratly) what the temp would be on the rate of temp increase and the time it takes to get there, hence why they only take 15 seconds as opposed to 3 minutes. That is why your one read 'LO', some of them go into 'monitor mode' of so try doing that as it will read ambient temperatures rather than use the inbuilt programing. I put my new thermometer on top of my home thermostat and it has read consistantly 0.2 degree's difference so I'm happy to go with that.
I thought Flukers were all calibrated, if so you should contact them in a friendly e-mail or phone call and tell them of the discrepancy and see what they have to say, they may offer a recalibration or replacement.
For the moment I would have to go with your gut instinct, if you think the mercury one is accurate (they were removed from hospitals because of there inaccuracy!) then go with it. If not maybe try and get a happy medium with the three if you can get them all at the same height.
Best of luck, I'm very nervous about this whole hatching thing because there are so many things out of our control, and you think there would be a definitave way of reading a temperature but even that seems to have it's drawbacks.

 

[silkiechicken]

Maybe you can also add some bottles or ziploc bags of water to help stabilize the temperature by adding the heat reservoir. Then you can measure the heat reservoir temps as that is more similar to what your eggs will be at. (look up info on "water weasal")

 

[Poison Ivy]

If you have a water wiggler then let it sit in the incubator with the baby thermometer in it for at least a hour then take the reading. it should give you a temp for what the inside of the egg temps would be. I should have said something about the wiggler but forgot.