vent question - building styrofoam incubator

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

i'm thinking about building a foam bator, forced air and for dry incubating.

i've seen a lot of variation in venting in the bators people are building so far, generally going from 1 or 2 holes for hum control, up to 6 small holes (3/8") for air exchange plus 2 larger holes (3/4") for hum control.

i tried doing a search, but searching for venting or vent holes on here throws up about a billion posts. quelle surprise.

what's the general consensus? :

1) do i need air holes as well as hum holes?
2) if so, do the air holes stay open all the time?
3) how many air holes / hum holes and how big?
3) if i'm using forced air does it matter where the hum holes go? (ie: top/middle/bottom)
4) should the hum holes be at different heights to each other or different places on the bator (ie: one on each long side?)

(first post over here...i'm going to slink off to an IA meeting in Coop & Run Design and Construction now)

 

[paddock36]

Ok, not sure how much I can help but here goes. I built my incubator in a plasic ice chest and yes you need air holes near the bottom. I put four using a small dremel bit and they stay open all the time. Then you need vent holes. I put two, diagonally from one another near the top. I used a small piece of pipe in those, about the size of a quarter and I used the rubber caps that go on the bottom of a cane or chair leg for caps which work great. I leave them off for now and my humidity is running about 40 and if I put the caps on the humidity goes up. I hope that helps.

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

it does help, just 2 questions.

1) dremel bit for the air holes, i assume you mean quite a small bit? like, ~3-4mm / 1/8"?
2) i'm not american. how big is a quarter roughly? 1/2"?

 

[paddock36]

I used a dremmel bit because I did not have a drill at the time. So just a small drill bit. The holes I made are just a little larger than the inside tube of a disposable ink pen, the part that actually holds the ink in it. As far as the pipe that I used it was gray plastic pipe that is used for running electrical wire in it. I saw someone on here that used prescription medication bottles with the screw caps and just cut off the bottoms so when you take the cap off they are open and when you need to seal them up you replace the caps. The small size bottles.

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

thank you

 

[paddock36]

Glad I could help. Hopefully, I explained it well enough that your incubator works right. So far mine seems to be working well enough. I'm waiting for my first batch of eggs to hatch.