The Incubator Thread

[gander007]

Can anyone tell me if this looks ok? I made a homemade incubator and I haven't put eggs in it yet, it has four little cups with water in them and there is insulation to keep the heat it's also lined with aluminum foil. I've never done this before and I was reading on older threads where people have made incubators similar to mine and had great turn outs. Thanks for the advice and help!

Now is the time to check and see if it will keep a steady temp and you can control the humidity

 

[Lamaremybabies]

Now is the time to check and see if it will keep a steady temp and you can control the humidity

Yeah. I let it run all afternoon and everything seemed great. The humidity was fine and it held a steady temp of 99 degrees and even when I open the lid it only take a couple minutes to recover.

 

[kybyxbee]

A stryo incubator will make you learn how to incubate eggs.  A Dickey incubator will just do it for you 

Electronic vs. wafer: call Mr. Dickey, he will explain to you in perfect detail the differences and you can decide for yourself.  Everyone has their own preferences and opinions, he has to warranty his product and produce answers if it doesn't perform.

I chose Dickey because I can get immediate customer service and his product is made in the USA by a small business.  I have no idea what GQF is about, but reviews on their customer service is sub-par, at best.

Forgot to mention: our hatch rate is well over 80%, after following Mr. Dickey's instructions, on a 3 tray, one tray hatcher incubator.  We do staggered hatches every week and have never looked back.

Thank you for your response, I have 3 styrofoam. I am sure I will go with the dickey now. I cannot find anyone with issues with them. By staggering yout hatches you are making the most of it, I was going to get the 2x2 but since your comment maybe the other one would be best.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Horrible hatch rate. Out of 30 eggs, we hatched 3 perfectly healthy chicks. I let them set a full week past 21 days and finally pulled the plug today. Almost all of them were fully formed and feathered, but apparently stillborn. What happened?

would say temp was to low if it took em a week after the 21 days but PD or one of the others might know better

I think funwithchicks was saying after the 3 hatched they were left in the incubator for another week and no more hatched. Funwithchicks, Sooooooooooooooo many things can go wrong and cause that problem and I would need a Full report on what you done the entire time(21 days) to even be able to offer some "good" help. I could Guess and guess and probably not hit it right-----but to offer some help, tell me what happen with the first pip, how long before the second pip, third pip? Did the 3 that hatched----hatch on time---day 21--and completely hatched on their own? How long did you wait before you took the first, second and third hatch out the incubator---after each one hatched???

 

[PD-Riverman]

Can anyone tell me if this looks ok? I made a homemade incubator and I haven't put eggs in it yet, it has four little cups with water in them and there is insulation to keep the heat it's also lined with aluminum foil. I've never done this before and I was reading on older threads where people have made incubators similar to mine and had great turn outs. Thanks for the advice and help!

If you are doing this without a thermostat, the room it is in will have to stay the same temp. If the room temp changes a couple degree's the incubator temp will change too. I have built incubators but ALWAYS with a thermostat---because I do not want to take 21 days to find out if my playing works. A hot water heater thermostat is less than $10 and a wafer is in the $20/25 range. Good Luck

 

[PD-Riverman]

Thinking of buying a dickeys incubator, does anyone have any faults with them. and what about electronic vs waffle heating.

Why is auto correct always messing up what I want to say? I hate it.

Dickeys is a good incubator----I have one of the older ones that had a wafer thermostat and I updated it to a electronic thermostat(not the one they use). I did not update because of the wafer but because of other features the electronic thermostat has. It Works great. I have a GQF and It works great. My favorite cabinet in my home-made and it works great(probably like it the most because I built it)!! (Pic of the home-made ones are below my name)

Wafer and electronic thermostat do the same as far as cutting the heaters off, but MOST electronic thermostat gets close to the set temp and cuts the heater down so it can "ease" up to the set temp and not over run that setting very much. A wafer heater stays on 100% and when it gets to the set temp it cuts off and most of the time it will cause the temp in the incubator to go over the set temp a degree or two before it stops and starts slowly cooling down till it kicks the heaters back on---a few minutes later. I do not have a problem with that because the inside of the egg temp will not re-act to that slight over run for that short of a time. My hatcher has a wafer thermostat. and I do not want a electronic one in it. My home-made hatcher has hatched over 5700 eggs in the last 1 1/2 years with a close 100% hatch rate most of the time. I feel the wafer will run more trouble free as the incubator ages, But electronic is nice but not needed to have great hatches.

 

[Lamaremybabies]

If you are doing this without a thermostat, the room it is in will have to stay the same temp. If the room temp changes a couple degree's the incubator temp will change too. I have built incubators but ALWAYS with a thermostat---because I do not want to take 21 days to find out if my playing works. A hot water heater thermostat is less than $10 and a wafer is in the $20/25 range. Good Luck

I do have a thermometer in there and it reads 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't however have the thing that reads the humidity level but it feels ok to me.. I have small cups of water in there to keep the humidity and it seems to be fine. Also when I turn the eggs the temperature barely drops, it only goes down to 95 and then within a few minutes is back to 100 and stays there.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I do have a thermometer in there and it reads 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't however have the thing that reads the humidity level but it feels ok to me.. I have small cups of water in there to keep the humidity and it seems to be fine. Also when I turn the eggs the temperature barely drops, it only goes down to 95 and then within a few minutes is back to 100 and stays there.

I figured you had a thermometer, What I stated was a Thermostat, not a thermometer. The thermostat will control the temp by turning the light/heat on and off which you will need if the room gets cooler/hotter different times of the day.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Thank you for your response, I have 3 styrofoam. I am sure I will go with the dickey now. I cannot find anyone with issues with them. By staggering yout hatches you are making the most of it, I was going to get the 2x2 but since your comment maybe the other one would be best.

How much hatching do you plan to do? If I was going to do some decent hatching I would buy the incubator(Dickeys,GQF) without the hatching trays or no more than the one in the bottom. I have hatched 1000's and 1000's in the last year or so and have NEVER hatched in my incubators. My Incubators stay clean, the humidity stays the same, no readjusting etc. My Main incubator stayed on 24/7 for 17 months and was as clean 17 months later as it was 17 months earlier. I would hatch in the Styrofoam incubators till I could get/build a hatcher---but that's me. If I was only going to hatch a few along and along then I would just use the styrofoam incubators and save the $600/700. Styrofoam incubators will hatch good when properly set-up. I do not get as high of a hatch rate as a cabinet but a good hatch rate. I know people that have got nice cabinet incubators and still have a bad hatch rate after spending all that money. Just some free Info!!

 

[gander007]

Quote:
Then it sounds like you are ready to put some eggs in and test away

Hope to see you with some new chicks soon