High humidity prevents moisture from leaving eggs and the chicks drown. Do not use this device for measuring temperature! It is very inaccurate and responds too slowly to changes in temperature. I like the inexpensive combination humidity and temperature gauges one can buy at most hardware stores and stores like Wal-Mart. The humidity should be 50% days 0-18 and 65% days 19-21.
#Wooden sportsman incubator manual
Make sure you place the probe of the thermometer at the height of an egg's top, just where the Hovabator manual shows. The thermometer/hydrometer takes tens of minutes to settle to the inside temperature. To control a Hovabator we averaged the minimum temperature (when the heat turns on) and the maximum temperature (when the heat turns off). We like the larger thermometer/hydrometer for measuring humidity.Īnother benefit of the GQF digital thermometer is it responds quickly to temperature changes. Since this is exactly a factor of ten and catalogs are printed on newsprint, you have to read the catalog very carefully. Many larger digital thermometers and thermometers/hydrometers are only accurate to +/-1.8 Fahrenheit degrees. It is accurate to +/-0.18 Fahrenheit degrees. We use the small GQF electronic egg thermometer.
This means you must watch the temperature after you increase the humidity 3 days before hatch. The thermostat keeps a different temperature when the humidity changes. Increase the temperature if they hatch late, decrease if early.ĭo not adjust the temperature if the humidity is wrong. Chicks are the best indicators of temperature.
You must measure the temperature, but no matter which thermometer you use, adjust the temperature according to when the chicks hatch. The temperature should be 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit for chicken eggs. The temperature controllers will not work in rooms where the temperature changes. It is important to put your incubator is a place where the temperature and humidity are constant and there is no breeze. Wafer (and I assume electronic) thermostats change set point when the room they are in changes temperature. Wafer thermostats and the electronic thermostat in my GQF Sportsman change set point when the inside humidity changes (for example when the humidity pan dries out). I do not recommend the electronic control on the Little Giant because the temperature wandered too much and too often. I strongly recommend electronic temperature control. Wafer thermostats change set point when the atmospheric pressure changes. The fan should be on all the time not just when the heat is on. This will allow me to buy one for setting and one for hatching.įorced air is the only way to go it gives a uniform temperature inside the incubator. In my mind it has half the capacity and price of a Sportsman. I'm still in search of the perfect incubator. The Dickey incubator is almost identical to the Sportsman but has a wooden cabinet instead of pressed board. We are very happy with the Sportsman except we have nowhere to increase the humidity to hatch without making the humidity too high for the just set eggs. I got tired of adjusting the wafer thermostat twice a day. We now have a GQF Sportsman with electronic thermostat. There is a new Hovabator with an electronic temperature control. The egg turner is convenient but not necessary, you can do very well turning eggs by hand twice a day. The main advantage of these Styrofoam incubators is their price.
Sometimes you can have 100% hatches and sometimes nothing hatches. Hovabators (and the Little Giant incubators) are the dickens to keep at the right temperature. As to incubators, we had forced air Hovabators.
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