Finally finished building my incubator, had it up and running for a week before I loaded it up. The front is a 1/4" glass pane sealed in with clear silicone. On the floor of the bator, in the 4 inch space under the bottom rack, there is an 11 x 28" piece of heat tape that maxs out at 92-93 degrees, so I added supplemental lighting with the 2 bulbs. All inner surfaces are insulated with 1/2 inch foam insulation sheets wrapped in plastic tablecloth fabric(the blue was ugly). The heat tape is straight wired to a regular outlet and the 2 bulbs are wired in-line with a dimmer switch for making temp adjustments. There's also a small fan blowing upward. There's a bottle of water on the little top shelf. On top of the heat tape, there are 4 large bricks alternating with quart jars of water, all as heat sinks. The addition of the heat sinks made ALL the difference. The temps are always between 99.3 - 100.8 degrees. The higher temps register mid-morning, I think because the bator is sitting at the edge of the sun room. As long as it doesn't get any higher than 101 degrees, I'll leave it be.
Top rack has a dozen white and a dozen brown leghorn eggs. Second rack has duck, Ameraucana, and blue cochin eggs. Bottom shelf is loaded with various Polish eggs. All but the center rack are being hatched for other folks.
Edited by nurse_turtle - 4/3/12 at 9:00pm
I love it
