What am I doing wrong?

[SilverSage]

If I did this right, there should be two pics of my incubator.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Just move your bulb closer to the stat, set your fan to blow towards the opposite end from the bulb, and do not put your eggs over the bulb. Other then that your setup looks fine. I think you got eggs that were not fertile or good.

To be honest even with your temp swings where you have the eggs you should not have had a problem. I think again it was the eggs.

 

[MissPrissy]

Do you have small air exchange vents drilled through the walls?

 

[SilverSage]

Quote:
Yes, ma'am, I do.

 

[Jenski]

I like your custom wire rack! Nice job.

What are you using to maintain humidity? A water pan?

 

[SilverSage]

Quote:
Yep. You can see a yellow thing in one of the pics. That's the sponge that's sitting in a water pan.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

You might want to put something over the hardware cloth floor. Just from my own experience, especially hatching bantams, their feet will go through the openings of the hardware cloth which can cause leg problems. I use a piece of white plastic gutter guard that I cut to fit the floor of my bator. It works great and is easy to clean. I also agree that the light needs to be closer to the stat. Good luck!

 

[SilverSage]

I've moved the thermostat closer to the light, but I'm still getting a temp range of 97.8 - 101.8. I'm two weeks into my third try with this, but it looks like all the eggs are dead. Some look clear but most have blood rings. Any other ideas?

I'm getting kind of discouraged here.

 

[chickedydoodaa]

my temperatures spread that way and I hatched 16 out of 28 eggs

They may not be dead

Wait out the 21 days

in the meantime maybe treat yourself to a genesis 1588 everyone raves about them

 

[pegasuschick]

I have a home made styro bator too and my temps were fine the first time and this time after cleaning I am getting those swings. It goes from high to low in about ten minutes so didn't think it would hurt too much but I just moved the thermostat closer to the light and we'll see what happens.
I also used your idea about the pill bottle with wet sand for my digi thermo and it would be great if that would work.
I am so tired of having three thermos in the bator all reading different temps.
I was successful at hatching eggs in mine the first time.
Gina