Actually I think you are right. I believe that what is really needed is to keep the egg at an average temperture of 99.5 over a period of say 10 minutes. I also know that if the egg goes over 103 it will kill the embreyo almost instantly. I suspect that if I could keep it between 101 and 98 and average 99.5 it would work out well. There is also the fact that the hen will leave the nest every day for about 10-15 minutes. In some species of birds the male will sit the egs during this period. In others the eggs are left to cool. I would suspect that during that period the egg could cool 10 or more degrees. That is only once a day though. It should also be noted that in those species that the eggs are left to cool the eggs are well insulated with wood chips , grass, and feather down. In the species where wher the male sets the eggs while the hen is off the nest the nest iss essentually a hard surface and the parents will throw out any thing that might insulate it. RalphSnail Instruments wrote: > > > > >incubatotor that uses a micro controller that will maintain temperture with > >in one degree farenhite > > Perhaps you can loosen your specifications on the temperature precission. > The hens cannot achieve 1F stability and chicken still hatch. > > The temperature will also differ in different places inside the incubator > unless you include a fan to equalize the temperature distribution. > > Josef > > ====================================================================== > Electronical devices for chemical laboratory, custom electonics design > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Snail Instruments Josef Hanzal > Vojanova 615 phone/fax: +420-311-24433 > 266 01 Beroun e-mail: snail@iol.cz > Czech Republic URL: http://www.vitrum.cz/snail/ > ======================================================================