[monarch]

What are the CRUCIAL temperatures for incubating chicken eggs Between  ? F  and  ? F  I can get the incubator to heat to 101.55F and knock off then drop to 98.54F and re heat am i near enough these reading s are with a digital incubator thermometer???

[Vember]

Hi Monarch

I'm afraid I don't know the between temps your after, never allowed myself to find out

I would try & lower your top temp & raise your lowest a touch to be on the safe side Max I'd go to 99.8 and min 99.3
Temp needs to be 99.5 f at the centre of the egg.
When you stop turning at day 18 the humidity needs to be raised to 75%

Getting the right temp & humidity is crucial to a good hatch


If the temp runs slightly low chicks will take longer to hatch & if too high then they might hatch before the 21 days, problems can occur with both


Not a great help really sorry


Sarah

[monarch]

the trouble is when I lower the top temp it also lowers the bottom temp as the control only says lower or increase it is a poly hatch incubator??

[Vember]

Sounds tricky no experience of the incubator I'm afraid

Could you move the incy into a cooler room which may help even the temps out a bit :?

Only other thing is give it a go & see what happens


Sarah

[monarch]

I am going to persevere with the controls and see if i can get them closer to 100F either way then I will try a few eggs.

[babe]

what incubatatoror (huh?) are you using.

i aim for around 100'f and so far have had a pretty good hatch rate.

tried one of them r com thingies that is 100% accurate and it was lousy.

this time of year its more about luck, so cross everything and hope for the best.

what eggies do you have in there

[nnbreeder]

What you do is to add the two temps and divide by two for the average, in this case it turns out to be 100*F well 99.95* so you are about 1/2 a degree high which would be fine.
A trick that people use is to take a ziplock bag fill it with water and fold it in half and tape it securely so you can put your temp probe between the two halves. The water will give an aproximation of the temp on the inside of the eggs and your readings won't vary nearly as bad.

[monarch]

Thanks for that I will try the bag tonight...I do not have eggs in at present but am going to use White star cockerel running with warrens..then if I get a good hatch I will be looking for fertile eggs from Rhode island reds, buff Orpingtons and Welsummers.

[nnbreeder]

Here is an article that will rock your world when it comes to incubation, it's about dry incubation and it works. I tried it years ago and have never looked back. I finally convinced a friend in Hawaii to try it and for the first time she had a 100% hatch with no soft bodied chicks. Ducks still need a slightly higher humidity but the chicks do just fine with this.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-DryIncubation.html

[too many girls]

thanks, that's really useful.

[monarch]

Hi read that article that you sent with the link very interesting..

[kentishlad]

What are the CRUCIAL temperatures for incubating chicken eggs Between  ? F  and  ? F  I can get the incubator to heat to 101.55F and knock off then drop to 98.54F and re heat am i near enough these reading s are with a digital incubator thermometer???

Hi, those temperatures seem quite good to me, quite a tight range too. I have a home made incubator so it probably doesn't compare too well but I just hatched with a range of 99-104F.
There is another good article here

Getting the humidity about right is difficult especially this time of year as it's dryer, you really need a hygrometer otherwise you are shooting in the dark.

Good luck.

[monarch]

I have had the incubator on for 5 days now and think I am now ready to set some eggs.....BUT....the weather has been very cold for the last couple of days and egg collecting is normally done twice a day 8-9am and 4pm the afternoon ones may have been in the cold for 7 hours would this matter....I would leave them at room temp for 12 hours before setting.

[nnbreeder]

As long as they have not been past around 34*F (1.1*C) they should be fine. I did an experiment with a friend last year, gathered eggs and kept them in the fridge at 40*F  (4.4*C) and then shipped them from Oklahoma to Alaska, the transit time was four days and the box looked like they had kicked it all the way there. When it arrived eight were broken and out of the four remaining two hatched.
 I almost always store my eggs for hatching in the fridge through the summer months as it stops devolopment of the embryo until it's placed in the incubator. As long as they don't get too close to the freezing mark they should be fine.

[monarch]

Thank nnbreeder will start tommorow as I will have a setting then