temp fluctuation in incubator

Hey .netters, quick question, is it ok if the temps in the incubator fluctuate from 87*-89*?:confused:

mine goes from 88.1 to 89 and my eggs are fine

should be fine I know whe nI open the door to mine it drops like 6 degrees but back up with in a mintue or so once closed ( humidty takes alittle longer though.) and with out a fan I got like a degree difference I think it was from top to bottom.

No problem at all.....I hear a lot of people incubate at lower temps (87)

As long as your temps are plus or minus 2-3 degrees of the 89 mark you should be fine.

Hotter = Faster incubation time
Cooler = Slower incubation time

I wouldn't suggest letting your incubator get hotter than say 92 degrees or cooler than 86, but somewhere between those numbers should be just fine.

thank you all so much for your advice, i feel better now. i want everything to be perfect or close to when the pearly whites come.

One more bit of advice. I see the temps fluctuate in my incubator quite a bit, read as sometimes as much as 3 degrees of variance. However, I do have a few thermometers in individual boxes scattered throughout my incubator. Even though the ambient air in the entire incubator (walk-in incubator) fluctuates a good bit, the actual temp in the individual egg boxes doesn't fluctuate as much. I think it is a good idea to know the temps in different areas of your incubator.

This is the first year using our new walk-in, so I have been doing some tweaking. I actually had my thermostat set at 88.5 degrees, and found out the temp in most of my boxes was a little low. So, I jumped up the ambient temp on the thermostat to about 89.2, and the egg boxes sit at 88.0 now. Sometimes I think we get hung up on the thermostat being set at the desired temperature, but other events affect what the temperature really is for the desired outcome. Check the temp in the box, where the actual eggs are going to be incubated, and then adjust your equipment to get the temp stable and correct in the box, and not necessarily in the incubator.

Hope that helps,

Do you have water bottles in there? Water holds heat better than air. I assume you see the temp fluctuations when you open the incubator? That's going to happen. If you keep water bottles in there once you shut the door it should only take a few minutes to get back up to 89.

Also, I did some practicing before I had eggs in there to see what I could do if the power goes out. I filled up a gallon milk jug with the hottest tap water we have and I was able to hold the temps at 90 for about 8 hours. My incubator is the freezer part of an old fridge. It's just a good thing to know, especially in this little town, the power flickers every time it rains :rolleyes:

Tim, Thank you for the advice, makes alot of sense. I'll add another accurite to the egg box itself. Thank you

Steph, I have a DIY cooler incubator with water bottles in it, i don't have eggs yet so i rarely open it. i am gonna try with a thermometer in the egg box and continue adjusting.

Thank you all.