My diy incubator test run

[Tstraub]

A few months ago I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole watching diy incubators and threw one together real quick and put a dozen eggs in it that I got from a friend. Only one chick hatched. I determined that my temperature was off and I had a lot of cold spots in it. So I do a lot more research and made some adjustments.

The incubator is built into a toaster oven but it doesn’t use the toaster heating elements. Heat comes from a 40 watt light bulb and is controlled by a w1209 temperature controller available on Amazon or eBay for $3-$10 depending on how long your willing to wait for shipping. Air is circulated with a computer fan I salvaged from an old broken desktop computer.

Eggs are turned by hand 3-5 times a day depending on my work schedule. Humidity is added with wet sponges. Venting is provided from the vent holes that were already in the oven. I use magnet sheets to partially close the vents to help adjust the humidity.

I’m a week into incubating I started with 24 eggs. I took out one blood ring this morning. A few of the marans eggs are too dark to see what is going. The rest look to be developing well and moving around. Hopefully I’ll have good news in about 2 more weeks.

The spikes in the temperature graph are when I open it up to turn the eggs. If I go quick and just turn them the temperature is nearly unaffected. If I take time to candle eggs it drops and sometimes overshoots the target on the way back up but recovers pretty quickly.

 

[Theorrin]

neat!

 

[Tstraub]

Last night a storm came through and we lost power. I covered the incubator with a couple towels to try to hold the heat in. After about 3 hours without power it was down to 82 degrees. The power company estimated time to repair was still several hours out.

So I went to the local Walmart and bought a power inverter so I could run the incubator from my 20v cordless power tool batteries. I got it all plugged in and warming back up. About 30 minutes later the power came back on.

Once everything was warmed back up and stabilized I resumed hand turning the eggs. I did candle 4 of the eggs while turning but didn’t want to take the time to do all of them since they had been cooled down so much earlier in the day. The 4 i candled looked to be doing Okay lots of movement. So I’m hoping that the brief power outage doesn’t effect my hatch.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello!

Last night a storm came through and we lost power. I covered the incubator with a couple towels to try to hold the heat in. After about 3 hours without power it was down to 82 degrees. The power company estimated time to repair was still several hours out.

So I went to the local Walmart and bought a power inverter so I could run the incubator from my 20v cordless power tool batteries. I got it all plugged in and warming back up. About 30 minutes later the power came back on.

Once everything was warmed back up and stabilized I resumed hand turning the eggs. I did candle 4 of the eggs while turning but didn’t want to take the time to do all of them since they had been cooled down so much earlier in the day. The 4 i candled looked to be doing Okay lots of movement. So I’m hoping that the brief power outage doesn’t effect my hatch.

Yep, I’ve had this happen to me before too. Only that time it had been my peafowl eggs, which are far more valuable than most chicken eggs! They all ended up hatching fine and after the power came back on they just continued developing like normal. Nothing to worry about, it happens sometimes but shouldn’t affect the eggs unless it’s longer than 24 hours or so

 

[Tstraub]

Today is hatch day. So far one has made it out. I see several pips so hopefully she’ll get some friends soon. The one that is out is pushing all the other eggs around I hope that doesn’t hurt them. I quit turning them a few days ago now the chick playing with them like they are soccer balls.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Today is hatch day. So far one has made it out. I see several pips so hopefully she’ll get some friends soon. The one that is out is pushing all the other eggs around I hope that doesn’t hurt them. I quit turning them a few days ago now the chick playing with them like they are soccer balls.

I KNOW RIGHT!!! This is always my biggest concern and I cringe every time I see the first chick to hatch knock and bounce all the other eggs around! Usually they all do fine though…

 

[Tstraub]

Update:
Four are out 2 more actively zipping and a few more piping. I would guess that there are even more pips that I can’t see from my viewing angle.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Awww so cute! That’s awesome! Congratulations!

 

[Oob Child]

They're adorable

 

[BastyPutt]

well done!