Temperature Fluctuations Good or Bad??

[brimstone555]

Hi My home made incubator has temperature fluctuation +/- 3 degrees C !! is that ok? I heard temperature shouldn't go up or down by more than 1/2 degree C

I'm using a "Water Heater"Water heater" Thermostat and it's Fixed exactly 3 1/4 IN from 100Watt Light Globe... Should I fix it Closer?

I'm really hoping for some advice and if someone has similar set-up then I'd Love some pics too! Appreciate any help I can get... I don't want my first batch ending up 25%...

p.s. bought some Japanese quail today, saw some bob-white quail.. they are 'noisy' little critters...

cheers everyone who reads me!

 

[wowmanacat]

This is my first time incubating eggs and I have the temp all over the place. So far from what i can tell it is not hurting the eggs for I candled last night and some of them are doing good form what I can tell. I do thing I got a few that were not fertile. I also had a 110 temp spike the other day and I don't think it hurt them but will not know for sure till hatch day. I look at this way the eggs don't stay right at 99.5 while under a hen so why worry so much about the incubator temp as long as it is not to bad of a drop or spike.

 

[brimstone555]

hi womanacat! ...when you say: temp all over the place what kind of +/- range do you mean? if your incubator is varying over 5 deg F and have a good hatch then I hope you let me know... who knows I might start a batch this week with a little confidence.. I'm also guessing your humidity is varying too... mine is going from 45 to 65% between Light globe coming on & off!

..anyway good luck cause your further down the track to success than I am... hehe

 

[paddock36]

My incubator fluctuates a little but I usually have pretty good hatch rates and I also use a hotwater heater themostat in a homemade incubator. Right now I have 12 EE eggs and 11 are developing (the 11th has a small crack in it) Even a hen gets off the nest, so I wouldn't worry about the slight drops in temp. I would be more concerned with the temp spikes. Do you have your incubator plugged into a surge protector. Maybe you are having electricity surges (I'm not an electrician so that's just a thought)

 

[wandat24]

this is the first time i've ever used an incubator... we have a forced air one, and our temps were -/+ 3 degrees on the first hatching. they started hatching on day 19 and finished up on day 22. we got 21 out of 41 hatch (well, i'll have to go more into detail, only 11 of the eggs were truly fresh... the rest had been in the icebox for 1-3 days, but i was in a hurry to get started... i brought them to room temp for 2 days).
on our second hatching the temp was only off maybe 1 degree one way or the other. we got 33 that hatched starting on day 18 stopping on day 23.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Yea, I think 3 degrees C is a lot... Thats around 6 degrees F I believe. Make sure the flat side of the thermostat is aimed at the light an move it closer to the light till the off an on temp comes closer together. If your box is insulated you should be able to get it down to 1/2 degree C.

 

[al6517]

I originaly used a water heater thermostat in my bator and the temps were also +/- 3 degrees, my hatches were Ok but not great and allways hatched 2 day's late. I have since changed to a dbl wafer back up thermostat and got rid of the water heater thermostat. My hatches have improved 10 fold, temp's are so stable you can't even imagine living with .1 variance after +/- 3 whole degrees, and the hatches are on time and in much better condition. So I guess if you can live with the water heater thermostat results your Ok, if not make a change and improve your hatchability.

AL