Homemade Incubators

[Ankron]

Yep 19 out of 21 the two never started. I just wanted to make my own because its fun to see what u can come up with

 

[Ankron]

silkie eggs cooking now!

 

[dolfi]

have been looking around cause i want to make a homemade lockdown bator. i have LG but sometimes i want to start a new hatch and cant cause i have to wait for the hatch on to finish.

 

[Sclark73]

Here's my homemade incubator. Fridge cooler out if a pop up camper. On my 2nd hatch atm. 13 thriving so far.

 

[oletymer]

Well after having an incubator and all the dust in the house from raising the chicks through the winter I sold it, Then I had two banty hens go broody and my little silkie is good at sitting but when she gets off her nest to eat and stretch her legs the poor girl loses track of her nest and ends up sitting somewhere else
OMG!

So in a pinch I took some of her eggs into the house and this is what I came up with to get to the pipping stage and then I will sneak them back into the nest for her to finish hatching them ,because the babies will follow her around to keep warm, babies dont lose there moms

I use a 2" note book and tilt the box back and forth all day long but not less than 3x a day, I have candled all the eggs and so far we have all movement in all the eggs .


I used a priority shipping box made a lid from cardboard, I had a christmas tin that had a clear lid so I traced it and taped it in to see the temp. I took 2 window candles that plug in and placed 1 in each side making sure there not touching but away from the eggs, and hot glued them to the box to keep them straight from not touching the bottom of the box, After waiting to see what temps I could get fromthe 2 candle lights I added foil to reflect heat to maintain 93 degrees, and a wet sponge to keep some moisture in the box, then I added a clip light to shine in and bring the temp to 100 and it worked out well I have had them eggs in there 1 week with out the temp changing.


because the temp is maintaining to well I added more eggs to hatch out. I'll up date with my turn out of babies.

 

[gimmie birdies]

this was mine, 8''x9'' box 15w bulb, dry hatch small white dish held water every 2 days or so.had 3 batches with this bator.

here's the hatch from those eggs...

hatch was 100% but were were waiting on one chick in this pic.



just modified it to hold more eggs. these are due 8/18

 

[dolfi]

this was mine, 8''x9'' box 15w bulb, dry hatch small white dish held water every 2 days or so.had 3 batches with this bator.

here's the hatch from those eggs...

hatch was 100% but were were waiting on one chick in this pic.



just modified it to hold more eggs. these are due 8/18

when you know what your doing it should work

 

[oletymer]

Cool to see some one else doing the same thing and not spending godly amount of money on the bater thats only styrofoam

this was mine, 8''x9'' box 15w bulb, dry hatch small white dish held water every 2 days or so.had 3 batches with this bator.

here's the hatch from those eggs...

hatch was 100% but were were waiting on one chick in this pic.



just modified it to hold more eggs. these are due 8/18

 

[gimmie birdies]

I wanted to get people's thoughts on this one.I have a little potato bin I covered the back that had perforated holes with a piece of cardboard, the box is 24''tall, and 14''x12'' I have a light that's 25w holding a temp of 101-102 which should be good since it is still air.


the light at the bottom, wire to suspend the eggs above

glass lid lifts to turn eggs. I cannot dry hatch with this because it is bigger than my other incubators. so this should be just fine- but I cannot get eggs to develop past day 7 thoughts?

 

[DancingRoo]

I'm going to try hatching my own eggs this year and I'm just making a cheap one from a Styrofoam cooler or maybe an old tub with a lid. If I decide to go with the tub, is foam core good enough insulation? I can get sheets of it at the dollar store and I'd rather spend the money on getting good thermometers, etc. Fans aren't a problem because we have a bazillion old computers. My husband used to volunteer at Civil Air Patrol and they replaced all their computers. We were the only ones with a big enough storage area. I was really ticked about it but I'm glad we have them now.

I have a broken dishwasher that I'm eventually going to turn into an incubator but thought I'd get more experience with something simple first. Plus, I've seen instructions for freezers but not for dishwashers, but I figure it would be the same concept and they're well insulated.

I see lots of homemade ones and it looks like the light is quite close to the side, how far away should I have it to be safe?

I read a great post here about hatching eggs and they weighed the eggs as well as candling which I think I'll do because I'm anal. One of the things that confuses me is the lock down period. Some people say they increase the humidity to around 70% but if you want the egg to dry out a bit, why would you increase humidity?

Also, I see that right before you do the lock down you're supposed to turn them so the air cell is pointing up. Is this usually obvious? How do I know it when I see it?

Thanks!

Cindie