Incubators Anonymous

[Faraday40]

inside right??? cuz everyone needs a house chicken??

Well, the silkie is technically a "garage chicken." We have some seramas & since it gets well below zero several days in winter, the bantam coop was moved into the garage AND has a panel heater. The silkie is at the top of the pecking order among them.

I ended up giving her some eggs.

We already have a house chicken - a serama roo!

 

[orrpeople]

Been ing for years, but I'm suddenly so excited about it!
I just sold an entire hatch of Silverudd's crosses (no breeding pens right now) and I have babies due Christmas day too! I'll keep those. I really want to get a jump on having some spring layers this year.

This is one (SFHxSB) that went to a new home today... The face!

 

[Tonyroo]

I have some Swedish Flower hen eggs due to hatch on Sunday the 27.

 

[Quailguy728]

Hey folks!

Long time no post. I'm sure we can all agree; Life gets out of hand sometimes...
I digress... I've returned today with a crazy concept I plan to implement myself soon. I figured it would be a great idea to share the idea with this community, as well as take feedback from you guys. (After all, you folks know your stuff!)

So here it is... Let me start with some background info:

I live off grid in Southern Ontario.. winters here can get pretty nippy. However that has never really bothered the quail. (even not having the power to run a heat lamp) I currently keep 2 coveys of quail (6 female and 2 male per covey) and they faced up against some pretty harsh weather this year already. Shortly after i got them this fall, I began thinking how I would run an incubator living off grid with limited amount of power. I came across some great off grid concepts such as: A broody hen, Hot water bottles, and the less popularly known, The oil lamp incubator.

The oil lamp incubator really peaked my interest, and its concept design has given great encouragement behind my big design plan. (Which doesn't use oil lamps). Even if you don't think youd ever use one, I'd take the time to look them up, there are even some tutorials on YouTube on how to make them very economically.


As the winter set in, it was boldly apparent that the small, poorly sealed woodstove that was heating my abode simply wouldn't cut it... It would take too long to start, and after finally getting it started, it would burn too quickly to keep me warm while i slept during the day. ( I work night shifts 4 days a week in town). Lucky for me some very gracious coworkers told me about an amazing invention... THE "Chinese Diesel Heater". I was skeptical at first, but after doing a lot of research: I convinced myself, and ordered one. ( i got mine for 195$CAN on ebay canada from a user named Keygiver-1 or something similar to that.. and no this isnt a promotion. I was very thrilled with the product quality and shipping time though, and am happy to recommend this to folks all on my own).

So i bought this amazing diesel heater at a great price, found that it heats my 6x12 off grid shack AMAZINGLY....(and power and fuel efficiently i may add.. Costs about 3-5$ to run for 24 hours, and really only draws power when its heating the glow plug. after it starts up it just runs the fuel pump and fan, and hardly uses any power at all) and it dawned on me that this thing may be able to heat an incubator, AND a brooder.. and may also be able to heat water for me... It uses 3 or 4 inch bendable ducting (easily available) and is made to pipe onto furnace ducts in RVs and Motorhomes. Since mine is a self built, ill be running the duct work all myself from scratch..

I picture a T off a corner vent, where an additional piece of duct work can be added with an adjustable vent to pipe air into a small box with the eggs, add cup of water for moisture and dial in temperature etc. (the trays would be tilted manually, unless it becomes viable to run an electric egg turner)from this small box, a smaller vent would run to a larger box underneath that would be kept at a lower temperature than the incubator to be used as a brooder. I would also add a small screened vent to exhaust the air that runs through the system (quail brooders can get a bit stinky with all those little poopers in there) as well as view windows on each boxes.

I hope to work up some solid blueprints and upload them for you all to view to help this make a little more sense. Ill also include the water heater i was thinking about attempting.. In theory a tightly coiled copper pipe inside one of the ducts with an adjustable vent to turn it on and off in essence is ran from a water store inside or out of the building. I was able to heat water in a bottle in front of my vent in about 20 minutes that was VERY hot (Was heated for coffee because my 12V kettle took a long time and didn't get the water hot enough)

I'm also sure a type of convection oven could be achieved with the right materials and insulation. AND why not add an adjustable duct that runs outside to the coop for the quail?

My big idea here is that if you have a product like this diesel heater that works as efficiently as it does, they only way to make it even MORE off grid friendly is to recycle all that heat.

I sure mention that the air intake and exhaust for the diesel heater are both pipped outside. so the air that is being heated is the inside air just being blown over the hot diesel combustion chamber by a computer fan... and it works AMAZING..

Looking forward to the thoughts and comments on this, as well as any pointers or insight.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays too all you folk!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Hey folks!

Long time no post. I'm sure we can all agree; Life gets out of hand sometimes...
I digress... I've returned today with a crazy concept I plan to implement myself soon. I figured it would be a great idea to share the idea with this community, as well as take feedback from you guys. (After all, you folks know your stuff!)

So here it is... Let me start with some background info:

I live off grid in Southern Ontario.. winters here can get pretty nippy. However that has never really bothered the quail. (even not having the power to run a heat lamp) I currently keep 2 coveys of quail (6 female and 2 male per covey) and they faced up against some pretty harsh weather this year already. Shortly after i got them this fall, I began thinking how I would run an incubator living off grid with limited amount of power. I came across some great off grid concepts such as: A broody hen, Hot water bottles, and the less popularly known, The oil lamp incubator.

The oil lamp incubator really peaked my interest, and its concept design has given great encouragement behind my big design plan. (Which doesn't use oil lamps). Even if you don't think youd ever use one, I'd take the time to look them up, there are even some tutorials on YouTube on how to make them very economically.


As the winter set in, it was boldly apparent that the small, poorly sealed woodstove that was heating my abode simply wouldn't cut it... It would take too long to start, and after finally getting it started, it would burn too quickly to keep me warm while i slept during the day. ( I work night shifts 4 days a week in town). Lucky for me some very gracious coworkers told me about an amazing invention... THE "Chinese Diesel Heater". I was skeptical at first, but after doing a lot of research: I convinced myself, and ordered one. ( i got mine for 195$CAN on ebay canada from a user named Keygiver-1 or something similar to that.. and no this isnt a promotion. I was very thrilled with the product quality and shipping time though, and am happy to recommend this to folks all on my own).

So i bought this amazing diesel heater at a great price, found that it heats my 6x12 off grid shack AMAZINGLY....(and power and fuel efficiently i may add.. Costs about 3-5$ to run for 24 hours, and really only draws power when its heating the glow plug. after it starts up it just runs the fuel pump and fan, and hardly uses any power at all) and it dawned on me that this thing may be able to heat an incubator, AND a brooder.. and may also be able to heat water for me... It uses 3 or 4 inch bendable ducting (easily available) and is made to pipe onto furnace ducts in RVs and Motorhomes. Since mine is a self built, ill be running the duct work all myself from scratch..

I picture a T off a corner vent, where an additional piece of duct work can be added with an adjustable vent to pipe air into a small box with the eggs, add cup of water for moisture and dial in temperature etc. (the trays would be tilted manually, unless it becomes viable to run an electric egg turner)from this small box, a smaller vent would run to a larger box underneath that would be kept at a lower temperature than the incubator to be used as a brooder. I would also add a small screened vent to exhaust the air that runs through the system (quail brooders can get a bit stinky with all those little poopers in there) as well as view windows on each boxes.

I hope to work up some solid blueprints and upload them for you all to view to help this make a little more sense. Ill also include the water heater i was thinking about attempting.. In theory a tightly coiled copper pipe inside one of the ducts with an adjustable vent to turn it on and off in essence is ran from a water store inside or out of the building. I was able to heat water in a bottle in front of my vent in about 20 minutes that was VERY hot (Was heated for coffee because my 12V kettle took a long time and didn't get the water hot enough)

I'm also sure a type of convection oven could be achieved with the right materials and insulation. AND why not add an adjustable duct that runs outside to the coop for the quail?

My big idea here is that if you have a product like this diesel heater that works as efficiently as it does, they only way to make it even MORE off grid friendly is to recycle all that heat.

I sure mention that the air intake and exhaust for the diesel heater are both pipped outside. so the air that is being heated is the inside air just being blown over the hot diesel combustion chamber by a computer fan... and it works AMAZING..

Looking forward to the thoughts and comments on this, as well as any pointers or insight.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays too all you folk!

Welcome to our little corner of BYC! All of that sounds very neat and an awesome way to use up extra heat/ energy. I always thought it would be cool to live off grid

 

[orrpeople]

I have some Swedish Flower hen eggs due to hatch on Sunday the 27.

Probably my favorite "social" birds - I also really like the "wonder what color these chicks will be?" attribute as well.

 

[Quailguy728]

Welcome to our little corner of BYC! All of that sounds very neat and an awesome way to use up extra heat/ energy. I always thought it would be cool to live off grid

Thanks! Reevaluating things, I'm wondering if I maybe posted that in the wrong thread. lol
Should I move that to its own thread? Or do you think it's okay here?

Living off grid is the coolest! (but also a little bit of extra work) Theres not really a whole lot of savings, but instead of paying high rent prices or hydro bills, I can invest in myself and my hobbies.

I can't thank you folks enough for having me around! So much to learn and see on here.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Thanks! Reevaluating things, I'm wondering if I maybe posted that in the wrong thread. lol
Should I move that to its own thread? Or do you think it's okay here?

Living off grid is the coolest! (but also a little bit of extra work) Theres not really a whole lot of savings, but instead of paying high rent prices or hydro bills, I can invest in myself and my hobbies.

I can't thank you folks enough for having me around! So much to learn and see on here.

It won't hurt anything to leave it here but you'd probably get a lot more responses to it if you started a new thread about it

 

[R2elk]

Thanks! Reevaluating things, I'm wondering if I maybe posted that in the wrong thread. lol
Should I move that to its own thread? Or do you think it's okay here?

Living off grid is the coolest! (but also a little bit of extra work) Theres not really a whole lot of savings, but instead of paying high rent prices or hydro bills, I can invest in myself and my hobbies.

I can't thank you folks enough for having me around! So much to learn and see on here.

Start your own thread and break it up into multiple posts.

 

[duluthralphie]

Thanks! Reevaluating things, I'm wondering if I maybe posted that in the wrong thread. lol
Should I move that to its own thread? Or do you think it's okay here?

Living off grid is the coolest! (but also a little bit of extra work) Theres not really a whole lot of savings, but instead of paying high rent prices or hydro bills, I can invest in myself and my hobbies.

I can't thank you folks enough for having me around! So much to learn and see on here.

Tag me in the new thread please