Doug The Chicken Man's Chicken Incubator

My Incubator Page

Ecco Friendly Incubator 1.1

Ecco Bator 1.2

 Ecco bator 1.3

Incubator 2.0

The Chickie Maker

Because Ecco Frinely Incubator 1.x wasn't broody when I needed it.

Items required

1 -  Cooler                    1 - Computer Fan                1 - Lamp base                      1- 40 W Light bulb   

1 - 12V Transformer         4 - Pill Bottles                2 - Electrical boxes                 1 - Dimmer Switch

1 - Receptacle                     1 - Plug in                          1 - Plug in                      1 - Receptacle Plate

 Electrical Wire                    Hardware Cloth          Jars of Water for Heat sinks     Cans for water (humidity)

2 - Thermometers one with shoe lace long enough to reach the Can of water below.  Hot glue gun with glue sticks.

Glass    Caulking         Duct tape      4- bolts and 8 Nuts to mount Fan with.

 I started with cutting 4 holes out for the Pill bottles in order to act as ventilation hole I could control. There is an upper and lower hole opposite each other and beside each other. With the Pill bottles pushed in the holes I then hot glued them in. This should provide good cross ventilation.

I then drilled the hole for the base of the lamp to fit through the cooler at one end and mounted the lamp base in the cooler.

Next I mounted the fan to the cooler. I used 4 nuts to tighten up against the fan then 4 more to hold it out from the cooler. I ran the wires out of a vent hole that was close. I placed the fan in a position so that it would blow over the light bulb to distribute the heat.

Next I wired up the electrical boxes as displayed in the diagram below. I mounted them to a board in order to keep everything together. I chose a dimmer switch as I believe it will have the least variation in temp.

Cut the Hardware cloth to fit the cooler and leave room for the cans and Jars below.

in the lid I cut out an opening slightly smaller than the peice of glass that I had then hot gluedin and taped the edges to make it human friendly.

Electrical Connections

 Picture of the inside of the incubator.

Lid of the incubator

Picture of Incubator Inside and the Electrical boxes.

Eggs in the Box for a test run.

 First pip.

Proof It worked.

We had 5 hatch successfully. Of the 14 that were in 8 were non starters and one died before it piped.

Things to change add a hose to the cans to refill them during lockdown.

Other than that It rocks the eggs. temp only varied by less that one degree. by placing the cans closer of further to the light or increasing the number or size or the cans I was able to easily get the humidity I was looking for.