Good donor for a homemade bator?

After reading lots of post of all the great ideas for homemade incubators, I decided I'd give it a try. I've started collecting parts I have laying around preparing to assemble. I was going to use an old cooler, then after reading about bread boxes and potato bins I remembered I had this sitting in a corner in the barn. We built a new house about 1 1/2 years ago the cabinet guys put this together with the doors backwards, so they left it sitting in the garage.

It looks like double glass or plexiglass will be easy for the top, heat in the bottom, and I could place eggs in the drawer and potentially the slide out tray underneath.

Top as a bator?

Bottom as a hatcher?

Might just work!

John

Check this site out. Some ideas would suite you perfectley:
http://www.dvbroedmachine.nl/eng/main_index.php?MainMenu=Development

I put two light sockets in the bottom, installed a small computer fan, and double plexiglass on the top today. I've got a reptile type thermostat I'm going to use, and I've got to put some weatherstripping on the front door. Should get it finished and plugged in this weekend and see how well it holds temps.

I'm also planning an egg rack that I can tilt side to side without opening the drawer, we'll see how that comes together

I used to have a single rack but I found that my making rows of racks kept all the eggs at the same height and better temperature control.

wont the melamine or fiberboard separate when it gets wet/humid?

Quote:
Good question.

The front is solid cherry, and the drawer and rack are solid. The sides and back are not. I don't think the humidity will hurt them, humidity get really high here all the time. getting wet will not be good for it, but the hatching will occur in the drawer that is solid wood.

I've never hatched before, how wet does it get inside the bator?

WET! There is a lot of condensation... I built an incubator once... it was for reptiles, not chickens, but the idea was the same. I used a big huge cooler, put some bricks in the bottom. I filled the bottom with water and submerged 2 aquarium heaters in there (they have thermostats so it worked out great!) Then I took tupperware containers and filled them with vermiculite. I drilled air holes in the covers of the tupperware and nestled one batch of reptile eggs in each container. I monitored the temp with a digital thermometer with a sensor cord (I kept the readout screen stuck to the lid of the cooler) and adjusted the aquar heaters as needed. I had to keep the top of the cooler partially propped open because it would get REALLY humid in there (I had a humidity meter in there as well. Reptile eggs don't have to be turned, so all I had to do was remove any dead/infertile ones and that was it! I hatched a few hundred babies that way.

I think for chicken eggs the same thing might work, but maybe with plastic screening/tray in there instead of the tupperware containers...

I would paint the inside with a polyeurthane that will be washable and impervious to the humidity too.

then you could use it over and over and over.

Would also let you wash it out and sanitize it.

You could minimise the risk of delaminating the wood by sealing the edges, the laminate would certainly get damp but the water/ and humidity would be contained. I used aluminium foil to line mine for that very reason. a good couple of coats of hard varnish would also do, something like boat varnish.