Almost 48 hours ago, the eggs went into the incubator. It's taken some work and maneuvering, but I think I've finally got the incubator stabilized.
The issue I was having was that I couldn't figure out if the temperature was actually where it needs to be because the thermometers were reading at different temperatures.
A little info here:
I'm using a Hova Bator 1602N which is a still air incubator and it has an automatic egg turner (which is a really awesome extra!). There are still air incubators and there are forced air incubators. Forced air incubators have a fan inside that circulates the air and keeps the temperature more stable throughout the entire incubator by pushing the hot air around. Still air incubators lack a fan so the temperature will be different throughout the incubator. Some areas will be hotter and some will be cooler. The biggest temperature difference will be in the "layers" of air. The heating element is at the top of the incubator, inside the lid. There's a waffle that is the heating element and a metal tube that runs around the inside of the lid that spreads the heat to the rest of the incubator. So the fact that the heat source is at the top of the incubator, plus the fact that heat rises, tells us that the warmest place in the incubator will be the lid. The air will naturally be cooler the further it is from the heat source, with the floor being the coolest place in the incubator.
I've got a total of 3 thermometers. One is a bulb thermometer attached to a clear, plastic sheet (mercury thermometers should never come in direct contact with your eggs, so the plastic offers a buffer to keep it from touching the eggs), the other 2 are digital thermometer/hygrometers. The bulb thermometer has been and still is sitting directly on top of the eggs. One digital one was wedged between eggs in the turner. The other digital one was sitting on the wire floor. I ended up sitting one digital one flat on top of the eggs and I put some kids wood blocks under the other one so that it is more level with the eggs instead of in the floor.
Before I moved the thermometer/hygrometers, the bulb thermometer was reading 106 degrees, the digital one between the eggs was reading 101.5 degrees, and the one on the floor was reading 96.4. The bulb thermometers temperature reading had me worried, so I decreased the temperature on the thermostat by 1/2 a turn and moved the thermometers around.
I'm trying to keep the incubator at a temperature of 99.5-100.5 degrees to get an average temperature of 100 degrees. The problem is that my thermometers are reading all these different temperatures due to the different levels of air inside the incubator. It's more complicated that I had originally thought it would be.
Part of the reason for the crazy temperatures has been that the eggs had to come to the temperature of their new environment. I let the eggs come to room temperature before I put them in the incubator, but once they are in the incubator they have to rise to the temperature of the air inside the incubator. Smaller eggs, I imagine, would come to temperature faster and larger eggs will take longer. Then the eggs become a heat source of sorts since they are now holding heat and helping to regulate the temperature in the incubator. But while waiting for them to come to the temperature of the incubator, the temperature goes nuts.
The eggs, at this point, have reached the temperature of the incubator, so I spent today playing around with the thermostat and thermometers to get the temperature just right. This evening the temperatures were reading 100.2 and 99.3 degrees. I would call this perfection!
Now that I am confident that the incubator is stable, I can sit back and breath a little bit. I will still be keeping a very close eye on the incubator just in case something goes crazy.
Oh, and guess what else? There's supposed to be a crazy snow storm moving in this weekend. So, I've got to make an emergency plan for these 42 babies-to-be in case we lose power. I've got some ideas on what to do, but I'm going to do a little more researching before I put any plan into action. It would be a real bummer to lose power and the whole thing be for nothing. I'm going to do my best to keep that from happening.
Last thing, I candled the eggs today to look for pores. I noted the eggs that are very porous. Apparently, the eggs that are very porous are more susceptible to bacteria getting through the shell to the embryo so I wanted to note which ones were more porous in case they don't hatch. We'll see how it affects these. I'll update the Day 1 post to show which eggs were found to be very porous.
A little info here:
I'm using a Hova Bator 1602N which is a still air incubator and it has an automatic egg turner (which is a really awesome extra!). There are still air incubators and there are forced air incubators. Forced air incubators have a fan inside that circulates the air and keeps the temperature more stable throughout the entire incubator by pushing the hot air around. Still air incubators lack a fan so the temperature will be different throughout the incubator. Some areas will be hotter and some will be cooler. The biggest temperature difference will be in the "layers" of air. The heating element is at the top of the incubator, inside the lid. There's a waffle that is the heating element and a metal tube that runs around the inside of the lid that spreads the heat to the rest of the incubator. So the fact that the heat source is at the top of the incubator, plus the fact that heat rises, tells us that the warmest place in the incubator will be the lid. The air will naturally be cooler the further it is from the heat source, with the floor being the coolest place in the incubator.
I've got a total of 3 thermometers. One is a bulb thermometer attached to a clear, plastic sheet (mercury thermometers should never come in direct contact with your eggs, so the plastic offers a buffer to keep it from touching the eggs), the other 2 are digital thermometer/hygrometers. The bulb thermometer has been and still is sitting directly on top of the eggs. One digital one was wedged between eggs in the turner. The other digital one was sitting on the wire floor. I ended up sitting one digital one flat on top of the eggs and I put some kids wood blocks under the other one so that it is more level with the eggs instead of in the floor.
Before I moved the thermometer/hygrometers, the bulb thermometer was reading 106 degrees, the digital one between the eggs was reading 101.5 degrees, and the one on the floor was reading 96.4. The bulb thermometers temperature reading had me worried, so I decreased the temperature on the thermostat by 1/2 a turn and moved the thermometers around.
I'm trying to keep the incubator at a temperature of 99.5-100.5 degrees to get an average temperature of 100 degrees. The problem is that my thermometers are reading all these different temperatures due to the different levels of air inside the incubator. It's more complicated that I had originally thought it would be.
Part of the reason for the crazy temperatures has been that the eggs had to come to the temperature of their new environment. I let the eggs come to room temperature before I put them in the incubator, but once they are in the incubator they have to rise to the temperature of the air inside the incubator. Smaller eggs, I imagine, would come to temperature faster and larger eggs will take longer. Then the eggs become a heat source of sorts since they are now holding heat and helping to regulate the temperature in the incubator. But while waiting for them to come to the temperature of the incubator, the temperature goes nuts.
The eggs, at this point, have reached the temperature of the incubator, so I spent today playing around with the thermostat and thermometers to get the temperature just right. This evening the temperatures were reading 100.2 and 99.3 degrees. I would call this perfection!
Now that I am confident that the incubator is stable, I can sit back and breath a little bit. I will still be keeping a very close eye on the incubator just in case something goes crazy.
Oh, and guess what else? There's supposed to be a crazy snow storm moving in this weekend. So, I've got to make an emergency plan for these 42 babies-to-be in case we lose power. I've got some ideas on what to do, but I'm going to do a little more researching before I put any plan into action. It would be a real bummer to lose power and the whole thing be for nothing. I'm going to do my best to keep that from happening.
Last thing, I candled the eggs today to look for pores. I noted the eggs that are very porous. Apparently, the eggs that are very porous are more susceptible to bacteria getting through the shell to the embryo so I wanted to note which ones were more porous in case they don't hatch. We'll see how it affects these. I'll update the Day 1 post to show which eggs were found to be very porous.
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