Home made incubator - now with hatching pics!

Date sort Score sort
Stingrayg4

Stingrayg4

Chirping
8 Years
Apr 27, 2011
189
9
91
Oklahoma
I just finished my home-brew incubator. I have a question regarding ventilation. How do I know how many and what size the vent holes should be?

Specs on the incubator: It's made from a cube shaped ice chest that is roughly 18 inches in each dimension. Heat is provided by a 150 watt AC Incukit, which has a fan. As it is I have four 3/16 inch holes by the fan, near the top, and then there are four holes of the same size on the opposite wall near the bottom. The drain hole near the bottom is also open, it is 3/8 inch. The top was hollow so I stuffed it full of foam padding. The window is double paned to better hold in the heat.

A comment on the Incukit: it's been running for about 48 hours now and has been holding a steady temp within less than half a degree of 99.5° and humidity between 55% & 60%, this seems like a very good little product. I believe that this is going to be really great incubator once I determine how much ventilation it needs.

incu01.jpg


incu02.jpg


-S
 
Last edited:
Great job on the incubator!

I have learned the hard way that too much air is not a good thing.

You should close 3 each of your holes top and bottom for the first 18 days and close them all for the hatch.

When you have that much air turnover the water is sucked out of the eggs - they will do great up to the end, but be too sticky to hatch. Trust me I learned this the hard way.

You need fresh air - but not a lot! One hole will be just about right in an incubator that size.
 
Quote:
Thank you very much. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Quote:
Really? Only two holes that are a bit smaller than a quarter inch each? I wouldn't think that enough air would get in, I don't want the little critters to suffocate. As it is the humidity is right where it needs to be, wouldn't this indicate that it's not losing too much moisture? I'm sorry if it seems like I'm arguing with you, I appreciate the input! It's just that your answer was the opposite of what I expected (too much ventilation, when I was expecting it to be not enough).

-S
 
Quote:
It's a small unit that has the a thermostat, heating element and fan all in one easy to mount package. You can see it mounted on the right side in the pics. Got mine on eBay, but this place stocks them.

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/index.php/150w-incu-kit.html


Quote:
No, I'm pretty sure it would be a bit too long in one dimension. My next project will be building an egg turner to fit it.

So anyone else have any insight on my ventilation question?

-S
 
Last edited:
I have a homemade incubator and I only have two vent holes and one of them now has a tube in it to put water in the bottom. The drain hole is also open all the time since all the wire is going throw it. I have had some very good hatch rates over the time that I have been at this. There are pictures on my blog.
 
Last edited:
I have a bator about that size I have a hole low at one end about 1" in diameter and a hole at the top of one end about the same diameter there is a little shutter to control the flow of air
 
On my mini-fridge bator, I used pill bottles. one high and one low for air flow. I still had to tape over bout half of a large pill bottle. They were bout 1 3/4" in diameter. and I cut that down to bout half that with tape.

Good luck.

TNT
 
I appreciate the additional input! It's been running for about three days now. The temperature has crept up to 100.2°, which is as high as it's been so far. The temp range has been 99.2°-100.2° at this point. That still seems more than acceptable to me. Humidity has stayed right where it should be, currently 56%.

incutemp.jpg


Since humidity has been staying where it needs to be, I'll probably leave the vent holes as-is for my first hatch in it. I'm planning on hatching some turkeys on it's first run if I can manage to find some eggs. Turkey eggs are harder to find than hen's teeth around here.

-S
 

Similar threads

gimmie birdies
    • Like
Do it your self incubator
Replies
6
Views
790
gimmie birdies
gimmie birdies
gimmie birdies
    • Love
    • Like
DIY incubator
Replies
6
Views
1K
gimmie birdies
gimmie birdies
Jojociita
    • Like
I 💛 Silkies.. But Bless Their Hearts They’re Not Too Bright- Wrong End Pip Help
2
Replies
16
Views
1K
Jojociita
Jojociita
friednotscrambled
    • Informative
    • Like
Matticoopx Incubator
Replies
8
Views
1K
The Moonshiner
The Moonshiner
Tstraub
    • Like
My diy incubator test run
2
Replies
16
Views
2K
Tstraub
Tstraub

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom