I mentioned in my introduction that my first attempt at incubating duck eggs was only partially successful due to misleading temperature readouts that I didn't catch soon enough. I mostly corrected the problem after losing half my embryos, but not entirely due to the challenge of getting a very accurate temperature reading as a base line. I'm determined to be as accurate as possible from now on and would appreciate any feedback from those with more experienced than I have with good duck egg hatch rates.
I converted the first incubator I bought (which I'll never use again for hatching eggs) into a test platform. I added water bottles to help maintain temperature stability for the experiment. One can see in the 1st photo that the incubator is reading 36 C or 96.8 F which is several degrees lower than what is showing on the multiple thermometers inside.
The 2nd photo shows temperatures ranging from a low of 98.8 F (lowest digital readout) to a high of 102 F as seen on the smaller brooder liquid thermometer. Both liquid thermometers were checked for accuracy using the ice water method @ 32 F. The square object in the midst of the digital thermometers is a Govee wireless thermometer/hydrometer that reports to an app on my smart phone. The later provides a graph for temperature and humidity data points over time, so I can determine what those averages are.
I don't expect an accuracy of better than +/- 1 degree from the digitals, so I'm using multiple digitals form various manufacturers to arrive at an average after discarding the outlier reading. When I discard the outlier reading, the digitals show an average reading of about 99.3 F. The liquid brooder thermometers show an average 101.1 F degrees result by comparison.
That's an average of 1.8 F degrees difference between the digital thermometers and the two liquid brooder thermometers. Whichever is wrong can make the difference between a good hatch rate, a poor one or none at all obviously.
Any suggestions about what the actual temperature reading really is or how to determine what it is better than how I'm going about it? I'm well aware that temperatures will fluctuate somewhat in the incubator anyway as a function of it's design, so I'm only looking to arrive at a 99.5 F average.
Once I have the Govee device (which currently reads the average of the other digitals) calibrated when I know which number is right, I'll use it to monitor my better incubators for the next batch of duck eggs. Thanks!
I converted the first incubator I bought (which I'll never use again for hatching eggs) into a test platform. I added water bottles to help maintain temperature stability for the experiment. One can see in the 1st photo that the incubator is reading 36 C or 96.8 F which is several degrees lower than what is showing on the multiple thermometers inside.
The 2nd photo shows temperatures ranging from a low of 98.8 F (lowest digital readout) to a high of 102 F as seen on the smaller brooder liquid thermometer. Both liquid thermometers were checked for accuracy using the ice water method @ 32 F. The square object in the midst of the digital thermometers is a Govee wireless thermometer/hydrometer that reports to an app on my smart phone. The later provides a graph for temperature and humidity data points over time, so I can determine what those averages are.
I don't expect an accuracy of better than +/- 1 degree from the digitals, so I'm using multiple digitals form various manufacturers to arrive at an average after discarding the outlier reading. When I discard the outlier reading, the digitals show an average reading of about 99.3 F. The liquid brooder thermometers show an average 101.1 F degrees result by comparison.
That's an average of 1.8 F degrees difference between the digital thermometers and the two liquid brooder thermometers. Whichever is wrong can make the difference between a good hatch rate, a poor one or none at all obviously.
Any suggestions about what the actual temperature reading really is or how to determine what it is better than how I'm going about it? I'm well aware that temperatures will fluctuate somewhat in the incubator anyway as a function of it's design, so I'm only looking to arrive at a 99.5 F average.
Once I have the Govee device (which currently reads the average of the other digitals) calibrated when I know which number is right, I'll use it to monitor my better incubators for the next batch of duck eggs. Thanks!
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Have you purchased a different incubator since you used this one? I just can’t get the temperatures to even out without terrible hot and cold areas... How did your hatch go??
