Newest Homemade Incubator

[E.M. Silkies]

I absolutely love this aquarium bator, but I have a couple questions.
What is the purpose of the sponges? Why don't you just do a tray of water?
How do you go about turning the eggs? Does it not affect them to take the lid off and manually turn them? It doesn't drastically change the humidity or temp.?

 

[gmendoza]

Quote:
The sponges help in the humidity.Its kind of like giving the air a raised bed where it can suck the water from.I find that sponges work better than just a tray of water with no sponges.

I have my eggs in egg cartons now.I hand turn them once in the morning,and once at night.I have yet too see a hen turning her eggs 2*4 times a day let alone sit on her eggs pointy side down,so there is some misconception of that.

It really doesnt change the temp much.The temp will come back to normal within a few minutes.

 

[Mahonri]

I guess quail must need alot of humidity.
I've had great success in my Brinsea and 1588 doing humidity at 35% (dry hatch) and then 65%. (with chicken eggs)

 

[gmendoza]

I just dont see how people are doing hatch rates at 35% humidity.My eggs dont hatch at that rate,no matter if I bump it up at the end.I have better success at 65% all the way til hatch date.

 

[badwolf7914]

hmmm I'm going to go get my temp/humidity one like yours at lowes then. tractor supply didn't have one

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
I've actually had hatch rates in the 90+% (I average about 75%) range with stable humidity all the way down to 15% for the first 18 days. Maybe lower, my gauges don't read below that. I hatch somewhere around 40 times a year for the last few years now an I try every crazy idea I can find an they all work in the right environment.. The thing is that everyone is incubating in different environments. If your incubator is in a room with AC an mine is not then you will need way less ventilation or way more humidity than me. If your incubator has twice as much ventilation as mine in the same room then you will also need twice as much humidity as mine. The temperature an humidity of the room the incubator is in is really all that matters. Play with the air exchange rate of your incubator till you get good hatches. If you take the time to get that right it really don't matter what the incubator humidity is, not till lock down anyway. I have actually stopped trying to adjust humidity at all until hatch time. All I have been playing with is vents. But then, who knows what all I will end up trying later. My hatching season is just about to start.

 

[badwolf7914]

I made my incubator similar to yours

 

[badwolf7914]

thank you dearly!!! my affordable temp/humidity monitor delema has been solved... We got the one from lowes and put it in ours. check mine out...

 

[E.M. Silkies]

Is there anything you can use besides glass on the top? What about a piece of wood? Or the top that goes with an aquarium? How heavy/thick should the glass be? Any suggestions as to where I can get the glass?

 

[Braclin]

Quote:
You need to use glass from like a large picture frame. The lamp sits on top so the light shines through to heat the aquarium. However i suggest after making this and using it that you need to keep it in a room that keeps a near constant temp.