Utah!

[acemario]

[COLOR=141823]Hope I'm doing this correctly. This is 4 1/2hrs into calibrating these two digital temp/hydro meters. Both are the acurite brands from walmart. One with a wire probe and one without. The one without seems to be exactly two degrees below the other one with both temp & humidity. It's also the slowest. The one with probe works a lot faster and seems to be right on or one below my oral thermometer when placed in warm water. Which should I rely on? Should I use both of these in the incubator and just stay in the middle of both readings? Both seem to be 7-10 off of what the humidity is suppose to be reading for this test, but i'll leave it in there a couple more hrs to be sure. So i'll just have to take note of how much its off when it's in the incubator.[/COLOR] [COLOR=141823]Im not sure how reliable these are, so should I just keep humidity reading between 20-40, and be fine? I know temp is more critical then humidity and since they are off by two, should I leave one temp at 100 and the other at 98? I have read that when using a fan (which I am) that it should be 99.5. I hate not knowing which thermometer to count on. Any thoughts? What would you do? Thanks[/COLOR]

Have you put them in ice water to see how close they are to 32 degrees?

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Have you put them in ice water to see how close they are to 32 degrees?

I havent tried that one yet. I'll do that tonight.

 

[acemario]

I havent tried that one yet. I'll do that tonight. 

Great. Hopefully that will help you know which one is off. I'd do that and see which one is closer to 32 degrees and rely mainly on that one.

 

[acemario]

And can I just say you'd think it was march with all of us incubating eggs!!!

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

And can I just say you'd think it was march with all of us incubating eggs!!!

Haha no kidding. I figure, they will be a couple mths at least before it gets really cold, and once its snowing im going to keep everyone in the shed anyway where its insulated and they will all keep eachother warm. If a lamp is needed then there's already electricity out there. I figure, there's no real harm in hatching them now

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Great. Hopefully that will help you know which one is off. I'd do that and see which one is closer to 32 degrees and rely mainly on that one.

Ok so after letting both of these thermometers sit with the salt for 8 hrs total, i found that the humidity got really close to where its suppose to be. The one with the probe went up to 72 and the one without went up to 70. At some points they were only 1 number off from each other in both temp & humidity but most of the time they were 2 numbers off from each other in both. So the one with probe seemed to be the closest, but I wonder if it would have gone up to the full 75 if I had let it sit longer.. Should I consider it 3 numbers off or just use it like its right on for humidity? Just to make things easier, is there a range I could stay in for humidity instead of one number? I did the ice test (just put a bunch of ice in a big freezer bag and then put the wire sensor into the water and it went down to 33 and then started to go up once the ice began to melt. When the oral thermometer was put in, there was no reading. It refused to read anything so I had nothing to compare it to.
So I guess my question now is, which temp should I stick with? The few times I put it in warm water with the oral therm it ran the same or it was one number off but I think it was because the water kept cooling down so I had to keep pushing the button on the oral therm. How high of temps can these handle? Is there anythin with a constant heat that I can test the two on? Or should I just consider it pretty accurate at this point?

 

[acemario]

Lisa, here are the fertility rates...

Broody: 3/4 sbel OEs are still going, and 1/1 Mavis egg is still doing great, although they all have really big air cells...

Incubator: 1/2 sbel OEs, 3/3 marans, and 1/1 silkie showgirl, and 1/1 austra....? I forgot what mix it was... Haha.

Awesome fertility! Your boys are doing their jobs.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Lisa, here are the fertility rates...

Broody: 3/4 sbel OEs are still going, and 1/1 Mavis egg is still doing great, although they all have really big air cells...

Incubator: 1/2 sbel OEs, 3/3 marans, and 1/1 silkie showgirl, and 1/1 austra....? I forgot what mix it was... Haha.

Awesome fertility! Your boys are doing their jobs.

This is good. Considering in the big pen my boy is covering 43 girls, I am amazed how many keep coming back fertile lol! The older SBEL's are trying to molt, and look awful, my eggs I checked today from the three girls were not fertile so I think he is stepping away from the creepy white gals for a bit haha! I cannot believe they are still laying with the way they look.

The white egg is from an "Austrawhite" from cackle. (1/2 Australorp, 1/2 leghorn). Never tried one of those, it will be fun to see what the chicks turn out like!

 

[Cynthia12]

No hatching here, but ~ My Poultry has been shipped.

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

I got my silkie eggs in the mail this morning! Wow that was fast But now im wondering what to do. My circulating fan still isent here. I checked the tracking number and it should probably be here tomorrow. But since I am planning to use the fan, dont I have to wait till I install it and let it run for 24hrs before putting the eggs in? It's running now but without the fan.That would end up being another two days if I wait till after it's been running a lil while with the fan. So what should I do? I was told to let the eggs settle first for 24hrs anyway before putting them in, but if I dont get the fan till tomorrow and then still need to let it run (with fan) then it'll mean making the eggs wait longer. How long should I let them safely wait before I need to put them in? I dont want to risk them going bad or something by waiting. Should I just start them tomorrow anyway or should I wait till after the fan is installed and running for 12hrs at least? Not sure what to do. I thought the fan would have been here by now. Feeling nervous & excited. Really hope I got the temps right.