Temperature swing during lockdown.

[Jake1297]

I have two incubators. One for turning the eggs until lock down. The other for lock down and hatching. The bator for lock down and hatching will stay at an even 100F during the day but during the night it drops to 97F and in then slowly climbs back up to 100F. Is this too much of a swing for hatching? Or will it just affect the time of hatch, adding a day of so to the hatch?

 

[stonykill]

mine doesn't swing that much, but will lose a degree to a degree and a 1/2 overnight, and the one time I hatched, it worked perfectly. 14 out of 19 hatched. I was sweating bullets, but it all worked out in the end.

 

[minihorse927]

It should be fine that way. I always drop my hatcher temperature anyway from 99.5 to about 98 for hatching. Have gone as low as 97 for hatching but try for 98. They seem to hatch better this way.

 

[stonykill]

I also thought of it this way. A mama chicken, duck, whatever, is sitting on eggs, essentually on the cold ground. At night, the temp of the eggs is bound to be lower than the temp during the day. That's the theory I have anyway.