Many of our customers ask us why it is important to stabilize their incubators for 24 hours before placing eggs in them. The main reason is to make sure that the incubator is functioning correctly. Even though the majority of the incubators we sell never have any issues; there is the occasional unit that doesn’t function correctly. Occasionally customers do not follow this step and have eggs in the incubator when they realize the incubator is malfunctioning and they lose a batch of eggs.
It is also important to allow the incubator to stabilize for an extended period of time to make sure it is going to operate correctly for the location. Often when customers set up their incubator and initially stabilize it the room temperature stays constant long enough to hold a stable temperature, and they will set their eggs thinking that nothing is going to change. However, the room temperature changes enough over a 24 hour period that the incubator is not able to maintain a constant temperature and they either lose the eggs or affect the hatch rate. This is why it is important to have a fairly stable room temperature where the incubator is going to be located.
Possibly the last reason for allowing the incubator to stabilize is just to make sure that the user is familiar with how the unit operates and how to make small adjustments. The two most popular units that we sell are the HovaBator 1602n and the Little Giant 9200 tabletop incubators. The thermostats on these units adjust completely different from each other. One is extremely sensitive and only requires small adjustments of the thermostat to change the temperature while the other takes larger turns of the adjusting screw to make a small adjustment of the thermostat. It is common that new users do not take time to familiarize themselves on how their incubator functions and how to make adjustments and will often over adjust the thermostat resulting in a temperature spike.
It is important to take the time to stabilize any incubator before placing eggs in it. Too often customers are rushed to get their eggs into the incubator that they either skip this step or do not fully complete it. To get the best hatch results it is important to fully allow the incubator to stabilize for a full 24 hours to make sure the incubator isn’t malfunctioning, that it is in a good location, and to know how to operate the incubator.