Incubating in the tropics for the first time

[Tropicalchookies]

Hi Everyone. I live in North Qld Australia. It is currently our summer and temps can be around 36°c and the humidity can get high too if we get rain. I have purchased a Janoel 24 incubator, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting the temp to stay at 38°c ....it wants to go higher. I have tried moving to the coolest room in my house and even out the ceiling fan on but it still goes up to about 38.7-8°c. Can anyone please offer any advice on a remedy or do I just have to wait until winter to incubate?

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

Welcome to BYC
Good luck with incubating!

 

[SourRoses]

Hi! From another warm place

I assume you are reporting the high temp from an independent thermometer? Is it calibrated and a good quality?

If so, is there a dangling wire inside the incubator to sense the temperature? It's usually black in color and a bit pointy on the end, if that's the kind of sensor they are using.
If so, try to lift / bend it so that the end is sitting higher in the incubator. That will read a warmer temperature and hopefully shut off sooner.
Does it have a programming feature to change the temp the incubator is aiming for? If so, dial it down 1 degree to begin with.

Aside from your urgent overheating issue... I wanted to encourage you to use dry hatching in your humid environment if you aren't already.
Dry hatching just means adding less / no water to keep it around 30-40% humidity for the first 18 days.
If you've been following the typical incubator instructions to add a lot of water from the beginning, don't panic! Just stop adding any until the last day of lockdown, when chicks are about to pip and need the humidity boosted all the way up.

 

[Tropicalchookies]

Welcome to BYC
Good luck with incubating!

Thank you very much

 

[SourRoses]

Okay I did a search for pictures of your incubator.
If you're certain of the temp deviation, try turning the incubator down 1 degree by pressing the "Set" button followed by the Minus - button. You may have to hold them together. I couldn't find a full manual on the manufacturers website, only a product brochure.

Next, check the thermostat wire, circled here in blue...

It looks like your model relies on threading the wire through some plastic clip like things to keep it in place. Does it look like it's in the same spot in your incubator top as in the photo?
I had this problem recently in my NR360 because they use tape on the opposite side of the plastic, up in the digital control panel, to hold the wire in place. Over many hatches and the humidity, the tape was coming loose and the wire was slipping down. I made a DIY fix and it seems to be doing well this time around.

I have also tried to incubate in summer and it can be very hard, especially when the outdoor temps exceed the goal. At those temperatures we just whipped the lid off and let the eggs balance at the outdoor temps. It took a lot of babysitting. Although I had a successful hatch, I also had 2 crossbeaks, which I hadn't had before or since. So that's something to keep in mind as a possibility. I've resolved to try to avoid heatwaves when planning incubation, however as I'm sure you're aware, no one can control the weather. And it's hard to know what conditions will be over the course of 3 weeks!
One other emergency cool-off method you can try is to have a stone tile, granite countertop, or something else that stays cool to the touch... and place the incubator on it when it gets hot.
Blowing air at the incubator doesn't always work well because the thermostat in there is going to try to compensate.
In the last week of incubation, and even somewhat before, eggs are actually putting out heat of their own from the developing embryo.
The big commercial hatcheries with incubation rooms actually spend more on the energy cooling the incubator chambers than on heating them.

 

[Lovely Lettie]

Hello and welcome to BYC! It's great to have you here with us

 

[muddy75]