will 96.8 degree eggs survive?

[Stazia86]

Okay, i got an incubator and it came with a thermometer. I tried it out 3 days before I put eggs in it. It's forced air so i had it perfect at 99.5. Put the eggs in and now i'm on day 7 and they are brown and i can't see ANYTHING! I do have 5 EE's but again when i put the light upto it even a huge spot light It's like there is a sheet of construction paper in there i can't see a thing. So I got a digital thermometer today and i put it in and the highest reading I got was 96.8. I'm on the first week, do you think I killed them? I'm thinking about opening one up just to see if it moves but i'm scared. I put the temp upto 98 according to the digi, my other one is now reading 102 so I'm wondering if I could get away with keeping it at that temp. I'm afraid to cook them ya know. And when i would feed my son when he was younger, i would test the temperature with putting the food up to my lips. i do that with the eggs and they seem too hot . I dunno, my husband says to just leave them alone and see what happens. i want to at least see if they are alive by opening one. Any suggestions would be helpful. thanks a bunch!

 

[lildinkem]

Nah your fine, they'll hatch like nuttin happened. I had a bator go down to 77 degrees and still had a decent hatch when a plug got pulled out. I run my bator right at 99 degrees. They might hatch out a day or two later. Just be patient and you should be okay.

 

[walkswithdog]

Digital oral thermometers are designed to read in contact with a substance (mouth under tongue) not air.

The best way to know what the temp is is to get a digital battery operated indoor/outdoor thermometer with a probe. Fill one plastic baggy with 1/4 of it water, squeeze out the air. Put it inside a second baggy. Roll it up and tape it as a roll. Now it's a fake "egg".

Put the fake egg overnight in the incubator.

In the morning turn on the digital oral thermometer - stuff it in the egg. Read it. Write that down. Remove the oral thermometer.

Take the probe from the outside thermometer - stuff it in the "egg". What's that say after 15 minutes? Write that down. Note the differences between the medical one (more accurate) and the outdoor one. How many degrees different, what are you adding or subtracting to get to the "actual medical" temp?

That's your figure. If the medical reads 100 and the outdoor reads 101, whenever you read that outdoor one you subtract one degree to get the REAL temp in the eggs.

Egg interior temps should run between 99 and 101 in general.

This way you no longer much care what air temps are. And aren't guessing.

 

[CorralitosSunflower]

EEEK! Turn down the bator now! I would go with the thermometer that was sent with the bator and a high temp if much more fatal than a low. I am not sure what type of thermometor your digital one is but I wouldn't rely on it if your eggs feel to hot and the other reads at 102. I would get a mercury or other thermometer to put in there so you have three readings, hopefully than you will know which is the correct temp. I wouldn't break an egg to see if it is alive, if you eggs are brown they are harder to candle but you still can if you have a really bright flash light. Keep us posted!

 

[dancingbear]

Digital thermometers are notorious for being wrong. I use an old-fashioned mercury fever thermometer (the kind you have to shake down) to check my other thermometers. I wait until the temp appears stable, then shake down the merc. fever therm., put it in the bator right next to the others, at the same height, wait 30 minutes to an hour, and see what it reads. If it's 100F, then I look at my red alcohol thermometer, and see what it reads. That's where I try to keep the temp for the entire incubation.

Never assume a new thermometer is more accurate than your old one. They are just as likely to be wrong.

 

[walkswithdog]

Hey I don't have an old mercury one....

Would you do me a test on one???

Make a wiggler if you don't have one and bring it up to temp.

And then check the mercury one in air like you have been doing.

And then inside the wiggler and see if they're the same.

Mercury is less subject to the need for contact as current medical thermometers so I REALLY want to see if there's any difference...

Please.... enquiring minds want to know.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I'm getting new eggs to incubate on 9/4, they'll go in the bator on the 5th, so when I'm setting up for that, sure. Right now I don't have anything running, and I still need to clean it all and set it back up.

I don't know if you can even buy these anymore. I found one with a mercury substitute that Walgreen's carries, but it has mixed reviews. If I could find a digital that has the accuracy of my old merc one, I'd be happy to switch. But I can't afford to just buy bunches of thermometers, trying to find a good one. I have another one, I got from a friend that looks like it might be a veterinary thermometer, maybe for livestock or something. It's a lot bigger than my old people-thermometer.

 

[CindyS]

Thats why everyone should get a thermometer they trust BEFORE incubation starts. If they have been a week at 96, they will still be developing so opening one will not tell you a thing- there will likely be a live chick, underdeveloped but not enough to tell what actual temp is. If I were you, I would leave the adjustment alone for now, go get another digital and see what that says, if both digitals are within 1 degree of each other, I would go with them. Thermometers that come with the incubators are seldom correct, if they are incubated at 96 the full 21 days they will not hatch, but if you correct the temp now, they have a good chance.

 

[Stazia86]

okay you asked to be kept posted.... so here's the final outcome. I FINALLY got the bator to stay at 99.5 i don't know what happened but my thermometers both of them, are now reading the same...phew! and i candled yesterday and have 15 confirmed fertile eggs, veins and all! The digital therm, was not an oral one, for the record. i bought an indoor/outdoor one

 

[Akane]

At least most of them will survive over 96 and below 103 so no reason to panic. A digital medical thermometer really isn't trustworthy to test an incubator though. I got all sorts of weird readings when I tried that. The only way might be putting it in something like mentioned. Pretty much no thermometer you buy these days will be 100% accurate unless you spend a lot of money on it. Expect them to be a few degrees off.