UPDATE!!! Please help....temperature was perfect until I put eggs in.

[trinacliff]

Ok, maybe I missed it, but I have read and read. I haven't read anything about the incubator not holding it's temperature as high with eggs in it as it did while empty. Did I miss it? It was right at 99.7 - 99.8 empty, and now it will not get higher than 99. I don't want to adjust it as it says to not change temperature for 24 hours after setting eggs. I put them in about 7 hours ago. What should I do??? Here I thought I was all ready, and I have a monkey wrench tossed into my eggs.

Thanks!

Kristen

 

[canada-goose]

Just leave it alone. It should stabilize at the right temperature. Opening it cooled it off a bit and the eggs cooled it off a bit so it needs to warm back up.

 

[Matt A NC]

The inside of the egg can take up to 12 hours to get up to a full and stable temp. Once that happens the bator should stabalize. If not up to temp at 24 hours, then you can adjust slowly.

Matt

 

[17roses]

I agree with other posters. Leave it alone. I have a LG and I incubate by my front door. The temp swings between 98 and 102 and I always have good hatches. The more you mess with the eggs and the incubator, the more problems you can create IMHO. Have fun and good luck. Sending chickie wishes your way!

 

[trinacliff]

Forgot to say...a new Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco....

Ok...I'll leave it and check again in once it has been 24 hours. I just would think it would have gotten back up to the right temperature again by now.
So if it's 99 degrees for the first 24 hours, it is nothing to be concerned about? I'm worried I'm already screwing this up.....

Thanks to all of you!

Kristen

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Should be fine. I wouldn't adjust it now either - I learned that the hard way. Temp went up to 107 and I only touched it a weeee bit. Give it another day or so until the eggs stabilize.

 

[jenjscott]

Truth be told, you could probably run the whole hatch at 99 degrees and it would just give you a late hatch if that.

 

[Jess N Jeff]

Don't touch!!!!

Temp will drop a little bit while the inside of the eggs warm up. Other posters are correct in stating that it takes awhile to the temp to rise again.

I am expecting my chicks to hatch today.

I had my incubator at a perfect temp, then I put in the eggs and the temp went waaaaay down. In a day and a half it was back up to where it should be. at day 10 almost all eggs were furtile and thriving.

Don't stress...I know that is asking a lot...but try not to stress.

 

[trinacliff]

Thank you sooooooo much to all of you for calming me and making sure I didn't jump the gun...not only did it take about a day to get back up to the set temperature, I think the mercury thermometer is a little lazy, if that is possible...LOL! I got my digital therm/hygrometer in there this evening, and it is reading 99.5 degrees and 46% humidity. I'm so excited that it's looking on the up and up now. The mercury therm is still saying 99.0 or maybe even a smidge less than that. Weird, huh? The is the one thing I would change about this bator...for paranoid people, one mercury thermomoter isn't going to cut it. LOL!

On a side note, I just about FREAKED when I first put the digital hygrometer in there, it jumped up to 70% after being around 60 something % in my house...don't know why, but after about 5 - 10 minutes it was reading lower levels and then stablized at 46%. I thought for sure I had killed my eggs....

Can someone tell me the *acceptable* range in temperature and humidity just in case things change? Just so I don't freak. I don't expect the temp to change, but I'm sure humidity will when I have to add water to the reservoir...so I just want to make sure.

Thanks again to all of you!

Kristen

 

[Germaine_11.20]

99.5 to 100.5 is optimal. I have had mine go up to 102.5 and they were fine, just had a very early hatch. As for humidity, everyone has their own opinion and based on where you live it does vary.

My best advice is to get at least two good thermometers and two good hygrometers and check them against each other during the incubation period and hatch. Then you know if you are at a good setting.

Sometimes one is not working properly but you don't know because it is the only one you have. Then you tweak and adjust and you really shouldn't have.

I have 4 of each and two I really trust. Those are the spot check thermometers that Speckled Hen wrote about. They are very accurate and not expensive. My hygrometers vary a few percentages but as long as they register fairly close I don't worry too much.

Good Luck