Trying to stabilize temps - Day 18

[mcdaid36]

Still air incubator - I just took the egg turner out, added more warm water, and checked the temp. It was a little low, so I waited a while thinking the water might have needed to come up to temp a bit more. It's now been almost an hour and the temp is very low. With the egg turner in there, the thermometer was reading 99 (I have it set low because I know by my previous early hatches that the thermometer runs high). Now the thermometer says only 85! I turned up the heat but am afraid to go to bed in case it gets too high. Any suggestions?

 

[dancingbear]

It can take several hours for water to warm up. You'll probably have to keep an eye on it, because since you turned it up, once the water warms up, it could very well get too hot. I did the very same thing once, and got a temp spike when the water warmed up. From that, I learned to leave it alone and give it time to stabilize when anything changed, and to make sure the water was very warm when I added it.

You could set your alarm and check every 2-3 hours. It takes awhile for egg temps to change internally, so that gives you a little wiggle room.

Good luck, I hope all turns out ok!

 

[DANNY]

Where are you measuring temperature? If it was on top of the eggs while in the turner it was closer to the heating element and when you took out the turner you lowered it making it not so hot. I don't think i would do anything to it. A lot of people cause theirselves all kinds of problems because they are constantly adjusting on their incubator.

 

[mcdaid36]

I thought the same thing - difference in height. I put in the lid of a peanut butter jar to raise the thermometer to the same height it was at. The temp raised a bit - maybe to 90. I got a second thermometer and the temp was close to 90 too, so I had to adjust. When I went to bed it was at 100 and I was worried it would increase during the night, that maybe I didn't give it long enough to stabalize, but it was still 99 - 100 this morning. I hope I did the right thing. It was against every bone in my body to move the temp, because I never had to do that before (only hatched 2 times before) but I hope I did the right thing!