Building a DIY egg incubator.

Robin's mother is visiting a sister in another state so i was able to snag a few things:
1. A lamp and an extension chord with line splitters:
44938_dscf1459.jpg



2. and got a fan from a compute not in use:
44938_dscf1455.jpg



Items purchase are shown below (except the replacement fan which came later). i didn't use the wire nuts and only one of the baskets.
44938_dscf1457.jpg



below you can see the general layout before I permanently locked these things into place with hardware cloth (big mistake). the water heater thermostat is on the left where you can't see it. I've since moved it to ~3" above the light bulb and put tin foil on top of it. this helped tighten the temperature swings (or lag of thermostat). The waterbowl aslo has a water soaked sponge.
44938_basket_placement_down.png



Some huge advice, don't use this to power a 12V computer fan (i spent $2.50 replacing the one shown):
44938_dscf1463.jpg



I put hardware cloth in, much too much of it and permanently sealed everything in. this is after a dry run, before adding water tube and water itself. AGain, a sponge in water bowl and thermostat has been moved.
44938_all_but_fan.png



Sight Window is from the glass of a picture frame:
44938_no_fan_but_assembled.png




Complete and in Test Run Stage:
44938_dscf1476.png

On left, i've installed a tube to insert additional water.
in front, is the turning contraption i came up with. this position has egg basket tilted up ~45o. releasing chain, will set the egg basket down 45o.
On the right, i've a 6 volt battery that i hope to replace. "Muddstopper" and "Mac in Abilene", other BYC'ers have over the length of thread, explained an old charger (phone or video camera) will work as a transformer. the transformer, aka phone charger, puts out 7.2V and 1650mA. i'm trying it out on one fan right now. Mac in abilene explained how to hook up a circuit and keeping the small plug intact. i will hook both up tomorrow if the one fan on it is still working then. the transformer or old phone charger, is powering one fan. the other was left in cooler but only as a backup. Great idea MAC IN ABILENE!



Currently, the first "wet" run. i'm getting temperature swings under control, but the humidty is way too high. about 74%. a sponge was put in the water bowl. and a towel is placed over the window to keep temperature loss down. it seemed best to only use hole for heat/humidity loss. too much heat was being lost w/o a concurrent loss of humidity. the humidity stabilzed at 55% but during the 8-12 hours it jumped to 65%. i put a piece of tin foil over the sponge. it seemed this would lower the RH and keep the eggs directly over it from becoming soaked. humidity hovers ~55%.
44938_dscf1481.jpg


T = 100F; RH = 55%. Air should be turning over. hole on top and lid isn't tight.
14 Eggs are in 4:30AM, 12/09/2009 (one more will be added this morning)
44938_eggs_in_bator.png
(T and RH are low in photo. i had just put the eggs in and the conditions hadn't returned when photo was taken).

During the first day, the basket broke off the turning handle. quickly, i opened the incubator, threw a towel over the eggs; tightened the cable ties; put much more hot glue on the handle/basket junction; and jury rigged the bator to allow for turning w/o using the handle - simply tying wire to the basket in three places, running them through the lid and tying onto a paint stirrer. In picture below, the paint stirrer up and paint stirrer down will be the two positions of egg rotation:
44938_new_egg_turner.png

I also put a piece of tin foil on top of the bowl of water (with water soaked sponge). this will hopefully lower the high humidity i've had of 65% today. it is probably the eggs loosing moisture and that isn't so great. who knows. hope all efforts pay off.

Eggs being used seem fertile (there seems to be development in second photo).
1st photo: on one side there is a small splotch of white material (see in the foremost portion of yolk):
44938_yolk1st.png

2nd Photo: on the other side, there is a spirally or swirly mass of white tissue/matter.
44938_yolkunderside.png




Regards,
Rosco