Incubator Temperature?

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:05 pm

we only got one, ut there were a lot that had died at diferent periods of incubation :-?

so there were obviosly a lot of fluctures during the incubation period. we have put the incubator in a smaller room so hopefully it will be a more stable temperature

Egglive · **Joined:** Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:58 am **Posts:** 267

The trick seems to be to get it stable, then don't touch it at all. Easier said than done. It's very hard to resist a little tweak which then sets off the ups and downs all over again.

moonshadow_dancer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:12 pm

I have mine in a small room, I keep the door closed and close it behind me when I go in there to stop drafts etc.

I have to say I am busting my choppers to do the candling tonight.

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:16 pm

the good thing is that we have an autoturer, s there is not much we have to worry about when it comes to opening it all the time, but i will candle the eggs at 7 days of incubation.

greenaus · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:20 pm

My home-made foam incubator uses a "microcomputer temperature controller" (just a fancy name for digital thermostat I reckon) which switches the heat on at an air temp of 38.0 (or less) and off at 39.0 (or more). The "or less" and "or more" are because it checks the temp at regular intervals and as it is cooling it may go from 38.2 to 37.8 in one hit.

That air temp currently gives me a shell temp of around 37.8-38.0 according to my digital thermometer (actually a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer/hygrometer).

The last lot I incubated before the batch in there now did well and when I stuck the probe directly into an infertile egg which was being thrown away, the core temp was near perfect. (37.6 as I recall)

The temps you reported sound fair.

My advice based on past reading would be for you to stop messing around with the temp at regular intervals. I'm not sure two hours is long enough for some incubators. And don't turn the incubator on, put the eggs in right away and then start adjusting.

That said, I had my eggs in the incubator on Sunday within a few hours of turning it on because I knew the settings worked last time.

moonshadow_dancer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:39 pm

Hi Charles,

Once your incubator has the right settings do you just leave them set up without touching them for the next batch of eggs?

Its great all this input, I am learning also, I describe how I got mine stable, but all the advice is great, it can only help Tahir and myself have hopefully sucsessful hatches

I just went and checked mine and all is good except I got back to the computer to find one of my girls about to try to lay an eggs on the keyboard :shock:

The sneak inside all the time.

Take Care
Deb

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:58 pm

i am learning a lot too

hopefully we get some good hatches

and hopefully others will learn a lot too

we are probably going to set around 30 eggs so we will need to get everything right :!:

moonshadow_dancer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:07 pm

I am hoping my next lot will be 12 orp and 12 araucana, hoping anyway

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:09 pm

do you have an auto turner in yours?

bunyanuternie · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 10:31 pm **Posts:** 2903

moonshadow_dancer wrote:

Once your incubator has the right settings do you just leave them set up without touching them for the next batch of eggs?

Take Care
Deb

Thats what I do with mine

Then you'll only need to tweek it

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