Bread Box Incubator

[Mareloo]

WOW, when I first saw this, I thought.. dropped box? Hurricane? Earthquake?

Sorry about your disappointment.. I do hope you plug it back in very soon!

 

[BirdBoy88]

I'm going to be making a incubator soon!!

but i don't have a bread box so i'm going to do it from a styrofoam
cooler.... is the styrofoam cooler good like the bread box?

 

[sbwhite0]

Okay I enjoyed your bator so much I built my own. kinda a cross between the ice chest and the bread box. I have a small styrofoam cooler I however am having a little trouble regulating the temperature. The hot water heater thermostat turns on at around 94 and off at 101 isn't this too much variation? I want to run this dry for a while to make sure it is good to go for the eggs.

thank you for your help,
shawn

 

[wraith2626]

Shawn

I have a recommendation that might help.

I made my own incubator as well using plans found on the forum plus some inovation of my own and I am currently in day 15 incubating 19 eggs from my 4 hens. Temp inside rolls from 97 on the low end to 102 on the high. All my eggs are fine - its the average temp you are looking to maintain. My setup has fans for a forced air setup vice the still air models some have built. I also have built an external handled egg turning setup so that I do not have to keep opening the incubator for this task. Plus the eggs are up top of the box so they stay in the heat longer during the cycling of the thermostat rather than being in the bottom of my converted igloo cooler.

The recommendation I would add would be for heat stability and retention during the on and off cycle of the thermostat is to add smaller rocks that heat up, and then retain the heat longer like heat sinks (the idea came from an episode of Survivorman on Discovery channel).

Since adding the rocks, the air temp stays about a constant and the on and off of the light and the homemade thermostat has not been an issue in keeping th eggs at a near perfect temperature. So far 19 or 19 candled with great development and embryo movement as of last night (I was hoping just to get 50% of them to this point by now...I am keeping my fingers crossed that all 19 will keep going strong the last week of development).

I will try and post some pics on my setup in another post, but try the rocks for heat sinks - they do not have to be very large - just add them to where you have space in your incubator/cooler to hold heat. It helped me.

Best of luck.
Brian....

 

[shmooborp]

i couldent figure out what the water wigler was for.?

 

[wraith2626]

The water wiggler is for simulating the interior temp of the egg - which you want to be as close to 99.5 degrees as you can keep it.

Buy a thermometer with an external probe - put the probe in the water wiggler (picked these up from the dollar store and KB Toys). Helps with making sure you are running the right temp inside your incubator.

I have two of these setup inside of mine. I tend to overplan - so I have primary and backups.

 

[Justino]

wow! that looks great!

 

[MissPrissy]

Jars of warm water work well as a heat sink too.

 

[speckledhen]

Boy, this is an old thread, LOL! They always dig up your bator threads, MissPrissy. I'm making a hatcher right now from a 48 qt cooler. Still cant regulate that darn WH thermo so I'm going to buy another wafer one.

 

[wraith2626]

speckledhen

What worked for me in the cooler incubator was to not put the thermostat up high, cover my cooler lid with blankets (the lid is typically the least insulated part of the cooler) and to have a high rate of air circulation inside the cooler. There is an air thermal layer inside that seems to be too hot too high up if you put the thermostat there. Put it instead lower with your light bulb above with fan or fans (took two for me) to get air circulation and heat regulation.

Also had to use the rocks (the water in jars work as well).

My air temp on the egss and humidity stays rock solid now though once I had proper circulation with fans inside, the rocks added for heat sinks, and the thermostat placement worked out.

My setup is not the pretiest but hope this helps possibly with yours (the blankets I use to insulate the top are not shown - but were a necessity to get regulated temps):

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn92/wraith2626/?albumview=slideshow

Good luck.