incubator ideas! post your ideas for home made incubators, whether they work or not~

[kvmommy]

I need an idea for an auto turner. My incubator is 33in long and 13 in deep and 13 in wide. I will have 2 long shelves. And it has to be easy! lol I checked out a lot of other ones and didn't understand a thing.

 

[mayberrygirl]

Mayberrygirl I attached my sensor with a suction cup thingy at the same height as my eggs. I tried putting it closer to the light bulb but it had to much of a swing. That could be cause I also have two 4 x 20 inch pieces of flex watt tape across the bottom. I don't use the light bulb in the summer only for winter hatches.

Here is a pic of the inside of my cooler-bator, the probe hanging down is to a thermometer, the blue thing is my LED lit fan. Would I need to move my fan to the lid pointing down and put my digital thermostat probe where the fan is or put the digital thermostat probe under the fan?

 

[3forfree]

I think the idea of having a fan in a bator is to move the heat around evenly. In my styrofoam bator I put the fan in front of the light, and the heat would gently blow out and around the eggs. My computer fan was supposed to run on 12v, but I thought it blew too hard so I found a 9v phone charger and wired that to the fan and it worked alot better. It looks like your fan is pulling heat from one bulb, and pushing it to the other end of the bator, it might be hotter in that end. putting the fan in the same place that your's is but pointing towards the top may work better than where it is now.Just my 2 cents.

 

[kellyn]

Mayberry girl, nice incubator! But I have to agree with 3forfree... I think you should get another fan and either have it like this: O <---- F blowing F----> O. Blowing to the lights or like this:
F----> O O <----F or something like this. I dunno. Just an opinion.

Y'all know what? The only thing I can hatch worth a crud is quail eggs! My chickens always die around days 12-16! Does anyone know why??? I know it isn't my incubator because my quail eggs hatch fine...

 

[mayberrygirl]

I am holding steady 99.5* all over the bator, I have the fan blowing like that at the water heater thermostat. But I have a thermometer under the left bulb on the floor, one on top of the eggs, the one with the probe, and one on the front plexiglas glass. When I install the new digital thermostat I am re arranging where the fan is. Just cannot figure out where to put the digital thermostat sensor.

 

[galanie]

I am holding steady 99.5* all over the bator, I have the fan blowing like that at the water heater thermostat. But I have a thermometer under the left bulb on the floor, one on top of the eggs, the one with the probe, and one on the front plexiglas glass. When I install the new digital thermostat I am re arranging where the fan is. Just cannot figure out where to put the digital thermostat sensor.

Just curious, if it's working great now why are you changing it?

 

[mayberrygirl]

If I remove the tiny screw driver that controls the hot water thermostat, my temps dip, but my youngest keeps wanting to mess with it. I wanted digital to begin with, but it was either wait for it and loose a dozen eggs or use what I had till I could get the digital one.

 

[kvmommy]

Mayberry girl, nice incubator! But I have to agree with 3forfree... I think you should get another fan and either have it like this: O <---- F blowing F----> O. Blowing to the lights or like this:
F----> O O <----F or something like this. I dunno. Just an opinion.
Y'all know what? The only thing I can hatch worth a crud is quail eggs! My chickens always die around days 12-16! Does anyone know why??? I know it isn't my incubator because my quail eggs hatch fine...

I have the same problem. I found a list of illnesses and diseases that affect the hatching of eggs and I lost it! But I finally decided that my incubator was infected. Every hatch had the same thing, late deaths, of the few that hatched usually one was fairly deformed and the rest had scabby navels. I'm disinfecting the crap out of mine this time. Maybe yours is too?? Good luck!

 

[Cpntherfan]

so far after going into lock down thurs nite my homemade bator has hatched 9 out of 25 eggs one has died and 3 are for sure not fertile! not baf for my first hatch and my first homemade, abd 2 more has pipped

 

[quintinp]

If I remove the tiny screw driver that controls the hot water thermostat, my temps dip, but my youngest keeps wanting to mess with it. I wanted digital to begin with, but it was either wait for it and loose a dozen eggs or use what I had till I could get the digital one.

First of all, I think the placement of the fan is just fine. I don't know what the problem is that the screwdriver being removed causes such problems. Could you specify, because my cooler incubator which is on my page is just like that. I use a screwdriver to control the thermostat, and I have never had a problem with the temperatures dipping when I removed the screwdriver.

By the way, if your youngest child insists to bother the incubator, move the incubator into a closet, somewhere that the children couldn't bother it. Or if that sounds too risky, you could make a small cardboard box, and duct tape the box over the screwdriver. At least with a box around the screw driver, you can catch the child bothering it, before the screwdriver gets out of place.