Whats a wa wiggler and what is it's purpose in an incubator

[farnorth]

Getting everything together to build a cooler bator. I have seen mention of a water wiggler but not sure what you do with it, what it's purpose is or even what it is. Google search shows me a toy....is that what I am looking for?

 

[Ridgerunner]

A water wiggler might be that toy or it may not. Not sure what you are looking at. For this use a water wiggler is something the size of an egg filled with gelatin or water and you stick a thermometer in there. That way you can tell what the temperature is in the middle of an egg, not just measure air temperature.

In a forced air incubator it doesn’t matter that much, but in a still or thermal air it can. Hot air rises. You can get a lot of temperature change just by going up or down a bit. For example, you want an incubating temperature pretty close to 99.5 at the center of the egg, but in a still air the recommendation is 101.5 at the top of the eggs. Supposedly that gets you pretty close to 99.5 at the center if you have normal sized eggs and you are incubating them on end, not lying flat. Some people use water wigglers to control what is actually going on at the center of the egg.

 

[whitneymoon]

Interesting- I have never heard of this!

 

[Jim H]

Has any one compared the temp inside the water wiggler to the air temp with a digital thermometer ? I am wondering how much difference there is. I haven't started a hatch, just got my incubator done today and trying to stabilize it for a few days before getting eggs.
I have my digital thermometer inside a water wiggle right now and it looks like it is going to be easier to set the thermostat with it, versus air temp, which was bouncing between 95-102