Temperature on shell.

[tankop]

I just picked up an infared/laser thermometer and decided to get picky with my incubator, looking for hot spots or drafts. I noticed the shell of the eggs were 103 F and thought this was too hot, but settings and air temps are the same as the last batch I did, which had good results.

So I was wondering if anyone on here might know what the temperature inside or on the egg itself should be?

I have been lurking on this site for a couple months before signing up and have already gotten a bunch of useful information. I was happy with my last hatch and "if it ain't broke don't fix it", but the new temperature measurement toy has got me asking more questions.

 

[silkiechicken]

If it ain't broke, don't worry about it or try fixing it.

Egg shell temps can vary depending on too many factors. Rate of water loss, ambient humidity, heat source being light, infrared, radiant, air flow, stage of development. Lots of little mundane details and etc can be found in poultry science journals that go down to air flow and incubator design...but I don't worry about it if what I'm doing works for me.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Those thermometers are ment for high heat places that you cant touch... Not that accurate at 100 degrees. I use one every day. Light also passes threw an egg an can effect its reading.

 

[tankop]

For sure, a window or screen, anything translucent will do that. Makes sense to me, good call.

The device seems as accurate as any other thermometers I have access to, and agreed with their numbers on the rest of the incubator spots. I should make some targets at egg height to put in the incubator rather than tag the egg.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Yours may be more accurate than mine. Mines pretty old. I have the same model they used in some of the star trek shows.

I mostly use mine to read exhaust manifolds for cold cylinders on my truck. Dont have to be very accurate to tell 300+ from 180.

 

[tankop]

This one is new, I've used older ones, but they were really expensive ones. This is as accurate as the digital thermometer with the "outdoor" lead that I have and seems to agree with everything else I have to test.

Being curious, I test everything with it. Also the chicks love chasing the dot across the floor of the brooder box.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Trouble with the lazer temp units is they measure radiated heat enegy and that different surfaces will give different readings depending on emissivity affected by their color, texture and reflectivity. Test it out take two objects say one hard white or silver and one soft and black put them in a controlled temperature enviroment like the freezer then measure the temps, often there will be a few degrees difference. That said even the good units will be calibrated for a partiular emissivity ie matt neutral grey or something. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissivity

Also another trap that gets us is the difference between accuracy and precision, just because the unit reads to 0.1 degrees does not at all say the real temperature is within a 0.1 degree range +/- 0.05 of the reading on the unit.