Me and my husband are new breeders. We made an incubator out of a wine cooler with help from a friend with lots of experience. We have had it running for over a month and thought we had it dialed in perfect. We put in our first clutch out 3 weeks ago and the temps stayed steady at 88 degrees. The issue started about 3 days ago when we added our second clutch, with took up 2 tubs. So we had 3 tubs in the incubator at that time, and the temps started fluctuating. Unfortunately I didn’t have any where else to take the eggs so I panicked and tried making adjustments. Luckily I think I have it fixed now, but over the last few days I’m worried the temp fluctuations effected the eggs. For the most part they stayed between 87-89 but there were times they dropped down to 85-86 for a couple hours. Luckily they never got to hot, I’m just hoping these fluctuations don’t kill the eggs.
I know absolutely nothing about incubation but here’s to hoping all of your little egglets are ok! But I have a feeling they will be fine! 
Not too bad of a fluctuation really, not even close to too hot. So you should be good as long as they don’t continue to fluctuate all the time. I use a small fridge for my incubator. The one thing that may help is a small (desktop, or similar sized) fan placed on the bottom on a angle to circulate the air making it more stable. Also if you haven’t done this you can use sealed water bottles on the sides and bottom for even more insulation and stabilization. But I strongly recommend leaving it pretty much alone if your temps are remaining pretty stable, don’t want to try to dial in the right temperature again if you modify the incubator until after these clutches hatch. Good luck, hope all goes well!
Hey welcome to the community and what have you paired up to create all those lovely eggs? I am nosy but I love pictures! Lol!
Thanks for the reply! We have a fan at the top to push the air down and circulate it. I do have the water bottles as well. Fingers crossed they have stayed consistent that last 6 hours so I don’t plan on messing with it at all!
Thode kind of fluctuations should’nt cause any major problems.I use a small usb fan installed in my incubator,it came out of a pc,helped a lot in stabalising temps.Keep us posted regards Tony
If it helps put your mind at ease you have to think how it would be in nature. Do you think a cold blooded snake would be able to keep her eggs at a constant 88 degrees? While massive fluctuations (especially too hot) are definitely not good, nature has built in some “wiggle room” there. I think in the hobby we often get hung up on making sure everything is “perfect” and forget how imperfect nature can be. It sounds like you’re doing great and I would suspect they will be just fine.
I agree with tomafguy about the fluctuations, and it sounds like you are on top of everything. One thing I do is, based on how many clutches that I anticipate dropping, I will set up the tubs dry and put them right in the incubator before any eggs drop. I keep water bottles in the incubator that I use to add water to the substrate when a clutch drops. Since all of this is in the incubator to begin with, and is already stable prior to clutch #1, you shouldn’t see too much fluctuation as you add each clutch, other than the new eggs stabilizing in temperature.