Will
05-28-04, 12:09 PM
So, I've learned a good rule when it comes to incubating - never trust a thermometer. Thankfully, I don't think it was quite as disasterous as it could have been. Hopefully my eggs are not damaged.
Everything is fine for the first month... About 5 or 6 days ago the temps seemingly shot up to "92" inside the egg box and, naturally, as soon as I noticed, I cranked the incubator down. Problem was, the temps inside the egg box hovered around "88" no matter how much I lowered the thermostat. Once the incubator got to and stayed at 72 for a couple days, and the eggs were still reading "88", I clued in that the incubator was fine, it was the thermometer probe that was the sh*ts(I meant "shots" for those with delicate ears, :D). So for about a week, my eggs were down to room temperature, I doubt it ever got below 70, so they should hopefully be fine. When I tested the thermometer's probe, it was off by a whopping 12 degrees! I think I fixed the wacky thermometer though. I took it out the the garage and hucked it against the wall as hard as I could. If I ever bother to piece it back together, I'm sure it'll work alot better than it was before. Either way, it was very therapeutic. I'm just glad it wasn't reading too low, and I didn't crank the heat up. Being off by 12 degrees, it could've gotten cranked to 100+ and I'd have poached eggs right now.
Lesson learned: If one thermometer says one thing, stick another one in to make sure before you fiddle with the incubator itself. I've got one batch of eggs in there now, and 3 thermometer probes in the egg box now. I ordered a Raytek last week that should get here soon, then I don't have to muck around with those stupid things.
Everything is fine for the first month... About 5 or 6 days ago the temps seemingly shot up to "92" inside the egg box and, naturally, as soon as I noticed, I cranked the incubator down. Problem was, the temps inside the egg box hovered around "88" no matter how much I lowered the thermostat. Once the incubator got to and stayed at 72 for a couple days, and the eggs were still reading "88", I clued in that the incubator was fine, it was the thermometer probe that was the sh*ts(I meant "shots" for those with delicate ears, :D). So for about a week, my eggs were down to room temperature, I doubt it ever got below 70, so they should hopefully be fine. When I tested the thermometer's probe, it was off by a whopping 12 degrees! I think I fixed the wacky thermometer though. I took it out the the garage and hucked it against the wall as hard as I could. If I ever bother to piece it back together, I'm sure it'll work alot better than it was before. Either way, it was very therapeutic. I'm just glad it wasn't reading too low, and I didn't crank the heat up. Being off by 12 degrees, it could've gotten cranked to 100+ and I'd have poached eggs right now.
Lesson learned: If one thermometer says one thing, stick another one in to make sure before you fiddle with the incubator itself. I've got one batch of eggs in there now, and 3 thermometer probes in the egg box now. I ordered a Raytek last week that should get here soon, then I don't have to muck around with those stupid things.