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Homemade incubator **PICS of mine and my hatched chicks on pg2**

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Chickfever

Chickfever

Songster
12 Years
Jul 22, 2007
685
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Southwest VA
Hope this is the right place to post....

After several trips to gather all my supplies, I constructed a homemade incubator using diagrams, pictures, and descriptions I gathered from here. Unfortunately I don't have an interior fan, so the temp needs to be 101....is that right?

Also, do I need a wire floor? I put a cup of water in for the humidity....does it need to be in the center or is the corner fine? Also, my temp seems to fluctuate when the lid is on 24/7....any idea why? Any idea how I can get it to stabilize? Since I have the wire floor, how can I get the eggs to stay in one position instead of rolling around? Can I just put them on the styrofoam floor is that a no no?

Thanks in advance!
 
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I poked several holes around the top & bottom of the cooler to let air flow in. I like a screen floor because I didn't want the chick to fall in the water dish after it hatched. My new incubator I made is big enough to let me put a egg carton inside. Here is pictures of both I am using both at the moment because I have eggs due at different times. I really like the last one because I added the fan & the water heater element to it. It runs great & the temp & humidity is right on track. I kept mine at 100* & humidity at 50%.

102_0334.jpg


100_0387.jpg
 
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The temp is right and a wire floor makes for easier cleaning because you can put a tray under them. As for water. You need to figure out how much you need because the surface area will determine the humidity. In some areas, times of year, or when the AC is on, I need to have the whole bottom tray of my home made bator filled with water to keep the humidity up. If one cup's worth of surface area is enough for you, it doesnt matter where in the box it is located.

As for temperature fluctuation... It will fluctuate with the temperature of the room the bator is in. You'll need a temperature controller or a light dimmer switch to fully be able to control the temperature. I myself have not solve the temp issue in my home made bator. Commercial bators have thermostats in them that maintain temps within a degree or so. They basically turn on and off the heat accordingly.

As for placing eggs, you can just place them on the floor. You will need to roll them over three times a day so the embryo doesn't stick to the shell anyways. Place an x on one side and just roll the egg over.

Good luck!
 
I have about 5 or 6 holes in the top and in the bottom....can you explain the egg carton thing to me? Is it okay if they sit straight up and down like that? I was under the impression they needed to lie on their sides....

I know I saw directions on the water heater thing and the fan.....but I'm not electronically gifted so....I'd love to have something that would turn the heat on and off automatically. I could keep my house a little cooler to ensure that it wouldn't get too hot inside....any "simple" ways to do that?

Sometimes my humidity is perfect and 10 minutes later it will climb....levels out and then drops. I guess it might be the AC....? I have a dimmer switch on a lamp....had a really hard time getting it to level around 100....got it there for almost 2 days....put 8 eggs in today....left for 4 hours and when I came back it was 103.9!! I had even rolled 3 times today
sad.png
.

Thanks for your help!!
 
I just raise the carton side to side several times a day. I use a piece of wood to keep it raised up. I have a egg now that just pipped and I took it out of the one incubator and placed it in my smaller one. I just laid it on its side for hatching. In missprissy's post she gives you the instructions on how to rig up the water heater element to the light fixture. Its great no more worrying about the temp going to high. Once you find that 100* mark it will cycle on & off to stay at that temp. She also tells you how to wire the computer fan and its not hard I just hooked up a second one that I thought wouldn't work because it had 3 wires. The guy at the computer store showed me how to fix that problem. I now have it in my small incubator and I will be stopping at lowes tomorrow to buy a water heater element to add to it for later use. Believe me if I say it was easy it was easy. I'm not that great with stuff either! lol Good luck and do a search for chick chick bator and you will see her infomation.
 
Quote:
Alot of people put thermometers in them.
The gel/water inside heats up to the average temperature in there.

Bubba
 
Haha almost forgot the reason I was posting.
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That is a NICE setup Chickenfever. Seeing a homemade one completed makes me want to set one up now
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Hope you keep us updated on to how well its working for ya.

Bubba
 
Quote:
The water wiggler is used to simulate the core of the egg. Insert the temp. probe in it and then set whatever temp controlling device your using up so that the temp inside the water wiggler stays constant at 99.5 +/- a fraction.
The ambient air temp will fluctuate, but what you want to monitor is the core temp.

My air temp fluctuates between 95 and 102 degrees, but the core temp stays 99.5, and I'm just using a water heater thermostat, 25W light bulb and a computer fan.
 
Ah! Thanks!!!!

All I could think of was it would be a snuggly for the babies when they hatched. Of course the drug store that had a hundred of them last week put them all away cuz summer stuff is OUT and school stuff is IN.

sigh.

It's ok, the babies that are going to hatch have hatched!! (quail not chickens!) So everything is GOOD!

Susan
 

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