Posted by:
Kelly_Haller
at Thu Jun 25 00:46:17 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Kelly_Haller ]
Rick,
The Helix systems are very nice and will maintain the temps within a very narrow range. However, no matter what type of thermostat a person is using, you never know how close to the true temp they are running. It's great to have a thermostat that holds the temp between 89.5 and 90.0, but is it really there or actually 88.0 to 88.5? I have always been picky about this and believe you need to have some way to check and verify temps for certain. Temp guns are handy for everyday use with cages, but most are only accurate to within two or three degrees. The best way is a good mercury lab thermometer. I have an NIST traceable thermometer I purchased in the early 80's that is certified to within one-tenth of a degree that I use to check all of my other temp measurement devices or other thermometers. It's really a little much for many people because a new one now runs about $300. The next best thing is an ASTM mercury lab thermometer. ERTCO makes some that run around $75 to $100. These are accurate to within two or three-tenths of a degree of the true temperature and would be good for checking the accuracy of any cage temp measuring device or incubator thermostat reading. The only thing to be certain of if you purchase one is that it is the total immersion type.
I would agree with Tom that you should watch for variations within the incubator that could cause temperature differentials within the incubation chamber. Kinking abnormalities can occur due to slightly high temps and slightly low temps are strongly associated with non-genetic striping. I don’t believe that this is necessarily the cause within your clutch, because as Tom pointed out, the numbers affected were very small in this case but it is interesting that both occurred in this one group. Kinking can also be a developmental flaw that occurs under perfect conditions as I have seen a couple of cases with maternally incubated Burmese clutches. However, I have never seen a case of striping with a maternally incubated clutch. Also pretty interesting that you had twins as well. Keep up the good work.
Kelly
[ Hide Replies ]
- Kinks - nagrag, Sat Jun 20 10:44:58 2009
- RE: Kinks - Tom_Reagan, Sat Jun 20 11:15:08 2009
- RE: Kinks - HappyHillbilly, Sun Jun 21 16:05:31 2009
- RE: Kinks - nagrag, Mon Jun 22 16:00:13 2009
- RE: Kinks - HappyHillbilly, Tue Jun 23 13:22:00 2009
- RE: Kinks - nagrag, Tue Jun 23 16:08:06 2009
- RE: Kinks - HappyHillbilly, Wed Jun 24 17:17:02 2009
 Accuracy of temp measurement devices.... - Kelly_Haller, Thu Jun 25 00:46:17 2009
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