Water wigglers, any problems with using them? Ventilation?

chickenmeadow

Crowing
10 Years
Jun 14, 2009
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Southern Oregon
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Just started up the incubator 2 days before setting the eggs in & wanted to use a "water wiggler/weazel/snake" with a glass thermometer for another temperature guage, for the first time. The wiggler was brand new when put into the heated bator & gave off a heavy plastic smell, but a little less smelly after 2 days. It's like leaving plastic in the hot sun, but a little sweeter smell; so I'm assuming that it is "gassing out." I am concerned that it will cause bad air quality for the chicks to grow & hatch in. Has anyone had any experience with using the "water wigglers"? Any problems with hathcing with it?

In the pic below, it's the green squishy thing with the glass thermometer sticking out of it (also have a "top of eggs" thermometer). The "wiggler" idea is to try & judge what the temp of inside an egg would be, as apposed to temp above, under or around it may be. Also got a Brinsea Spot Check digital thermometer to try too. Am trying to find what the true bator temp is & also inside the egg.
34342_incubator_equipment.jpg


Edit to include that have just used the Brinsea Incubation Disinfectant (for cleaning inbetween hatches), it is no rinse & has a little fragrance. The smell that Was strong on the first day at starting up the incubator again was most likely a combo of the wiggler & the sanitizer "gassing out." 3-4 days later there is no smell, all is well on that issue. Also, I have concluded that the temp of the glass thermometer & the Brinsea Spot Check (very accurate) are the same inside the "water wiggler"; that is what I am using for the temperature to set at 99.5 degrees F in my forced air/fan incubator (instead of the air around eggs). Will also try making a wiggler from a ziplock. Thanks for sharing all of your comments, they were all very helpful & informative.

Here is a quote from one of the posters on this thread: "I actually found the idea somewhere here on BYC. What I did was fill a sandwich bag with about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of water. Laying the bag on the counter with just the zippered end up remove all the air (it will just flatten out by itself and the air will be gone). Once the air is out zip it closed. I rolled it up into a cylinder then folded the cylinder in half, end to end, so it was nearly the size of the eggs and secured it with packing tape. I was then able to insert the probe from my indoor/ourdoor thermometer and set it inside the bator and it was ready to go. ............................... The new design made for easy placement of the probe, it stayed put the entire 22 days and never leaked. In fact I'm using it on a new batch of eggs right now." (Thanks for sending that info to me, sounds like something worth trying!)
 
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I have made my own with ziplock bags which I rolled up and secured with packing tape. The first one I made evenutally leaked but the last one I made lasted for the entire hatch and worked great... NO smells either.
 
Hmmm, I used new ones for my last two hatches but never noticed any smell in the incubator. I did wash them in warm water and dish liquid before I used them. I put my Brinsea Spot Check in one for this last hatch - in which I hatched 11 of 14 eggs! So, needless to say, I was very happy with the water wiggler - thermometer combination.
 
can you please explain the usage of a water wiggler? I am ordering an incubator and trying to learn as much as I can.
 
They represent the internal temperature of the egg. For this reason, they should be approximately the same height as the eggs you are incubating. Expecially if you have a still air incubator where you get temperature variations from top to bottom.
 
Thanks for all of the comments so far! The smell of the plastic & whatever is nearly gone now. Feeling a little bit safer about it.

chickenonthehill: Thanks for sharing your experience with using one of these. A very nice hatch too.

countrychix: The zip lock bag thing is brilliant! I love DIY projects. Too bad I had ordered 4 of these at one time.
 
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The water snakes that I have used only survived 2-3 incubations before the liquid somehow evaporated from them. Not completely but they deflated/shrank so much that I was unable to reuse them. There is a company that makes a fluid filled "egg" with a thermometer built into it. Stromberg's used to sell them....I am not sure if they still do or not.
 
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Have been incubating with success, but always frustrated at guessing at just which thermometer is right. First time trying & experimenting with the wiggler & Spot Check; am apprehensive about turning the temp higher based on what it's reading. I'm a chicken!

Just started the eggs in the bator & temps have settled. The "wiggler" with thermometer & the Brinsea Spot Check say 98.4 F. The Springfield digital says 99.5 F & the glass "top of eggs" thermometer says around 99.5 F also. I have 2 Spot Checks that read exactly the same & they are noted to be highly accurate. It looks like, for the eggs, I'm running it a degree low. My hatches are usually a day late, but good hatches (have had bad hatches with higher temps, so using much caution now).

I'm over thinking right now & could use a second (or more) opinion on this new equipment. Thanks!
 

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