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S P A C E B A L L

You can't really tell what the baby would look like if it hatched since pigment is the last thing to come in. They always look pale and washed out until the last couple of days. Good luck next year.
 
colin, please do a little incubator research. There are plenty of people here to help on the forums if you need it. Get yourself a small computer fan that does not generate any heat and get it set up and ready, and monitor your temps before this seasons clutch arrives. Buy the way what are you using for an incubator, just out of curisoity? Lets hope to have no issues next time around and lets see what you get. FYI, I know what it feels like to lose a clutch, I lost my very first clutch mostly out of being unprepared, and I have no one to blame but myself.
 
for an incubator im using a refrigerator with a plexy glass window installed over a hole i cut in the door, 2 pieces of 2 foot heat tape one placed on the back and the other on the floor of the fridge. the area that is lower in temp is around the window. i wonder if the plexy glass is the problem because its not insulated like the rest of the fridge?
 
OK how big is the unit overall? And how much heat tape? Forinstsance my small incubator is a wine cooler coverted maybe 1.5 x 3 x 1.5 wide and I have about 3 ft of 11" heat tape running down the back with a computer fan fior circulation.
 
my unit is about 4 foot tall, 2 foot wide and 2 foot deep. theres a 2 foot piece of tape on the back and a 2 foot piece on the floor. hooked to a helix set to 90 + or minus 2
 
Running a helix should work. Your temps may be too hot. But i Dunno. How wide is you tape?
 
I would run an 11 " wide strip of heat tape down the back of the incubator, add a computer fan and you should be OK.
 
A three-degree difference shouldn't be much of a problem. Again, it's large, rapid changes in temperature that are most detrimental to eggs, not small variations. If the egg was leaky and covered in mold, I'd bet the baby was already dead before you found the slit. :-/

I'm sorry none of them made it. :(
 
I use 11" in my incubator and a helix as well. It's a converted wine cooler. place a thermometer with an outdoor probe inside it and you can monitor the temps at more than one spot at a time, I find the cheap accurites work pretty good you will find them at walmart.
 
I would run the incubator all year round and do run trial and error until next season.

Some things to think about.

Are you opening the fridge too often? Checking them too often?

Where is the probe for the helix located?

Where are you checking your temps? Just at the eggs? At the top? Bottom? I would go on ebay and buy tons of those cheap little digital thermometers and put them everywhere and check the different readings.

If you don't produce enough to fill the fridge, I would recommend getting a second smaller unit, like a wine cooler. They are easier to maintain in my opinion and leave less room for error.

I think last week when I posted, I counted the days and that last egg was around day 50? It does appear as if it was premature and had a difficulty maintaining the temps. Have you calibrated the helix with another unit?

Your plexigalss window, do you have a pic? Depending on how you mounted it, it could be leaking heat. Have you thought about adding a second piece to make it double paned?
 
Nick has some good tips for you to follow. I might add, to occupy empty space use unopened bottles of water. Make sure they are put in early enough to warm up to the internal temp. This will give you a faster temperature recovery time when you do open the incubator to check on the eggs. They will also help regulate internal heat. And if by chance you lose power for some reason they will also keep your internal temps for a longer time.
 
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