Best thermostat and heat source

[Simplycrappie]

I would like to know everyone's opinion on the best thermostat and heat source for a homemade incubator?i have a gqf but need another incubator to help a friend grow his quail population.I would like to build a cabinet type large enough to handle approx. 400 quail or 200 chicken eggs.

 

[cmom]

I also have a GQF cabinet. I use it for incubating but use my styrofoam incubators as hatchers. I made one out of a styrofoam cooler and it works great. I use 2 - 15 watt incandescent bulbs for heat with a fan that blows across the bulbs to circulate the heat with a wafer thermostat . Good luck and have fun...

 

[HatchCraft]

I would like to know everyone's opinion on the best thermostat and heat source for a homemade incubator?i have a gqf but need another incubator to help a friend grow his quail population.I would like to build a cabinet type large enough to handle approx. 400 quail or 200 chicken eggs.

Don't know if it's the best heating element, but the GQF 225 watt coil wire element with the ceramic insulators are good and popular with homebuilders. Sized just right for a medium sized cabinet incubator. I have used a hundred elements of this kind, but bought the materials in bulk rather the from GQF. Photo I took at the shop this afternoon that shows the typical coil element and a 250 watt finned strip heater. Strip heater typical will cost more and has slightly different heating characteristics. If you are looking for a simple thermostat the GQF wafer works well. If you want precision get a digital PID temperature controller. A plug and play controller will simplify the build.

 

[Simplycrappie]

Thank you guys for your help a lot of good info there...cmom I see you have rhode island whites I am looking for some do you ever sell hatching eggs?

 

[cmom]

I do. I show the birds at poultry shows.

 

[Fairview01]

Complete air circulation is the most important consideration when building an incubator. This is why the modern day small cabinet are inferior to the old Leahy redwood incubators. Replicate the air circulation of the Leahys then the heat source and tstat become a secondary consideration. The Leahys use early 20th century wafer tstat in a redundant system to protect from overheat and a simple high resistance wire.

It doesn't matter how good or how much the other components cost ; without the air circulation it will be a bad incubator.