Building A Heated/Cooled Incubator

[QuailMan226]

I am new to incubating coturnix quail eggs. I have been incubating them in a non-insulated shop. At first the eggs seemed to be doing OK, but I had to adjust several things such as the temperatures that I stored the eggs at before I placed them in the incubator. Now my biggest problem is that the temperatures in the shop are reaching extremely hot temperatures (104° F), and this naturally causes my incubator to run as hot and my hatch rates are less than 10%. I do not want to keep the incubator in my home for several reasons. So, I was wanting to build a temperature-controlled closet/box in the shop to put the incubators in or design an incubator that could keep the temperature constant whether the outside temperature is too cold or too hot. In looking at this, I don't see a lot of resources online. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to build temperature-controlled room specifically designed for housing incubators and protecting from the outside heat? Or does anyone have any ideas how to build an incubator as I described above?

 

[Tstraub]

This sounds like an interesting issue to solve. What are your skills? Are you comfortable with electronics at all? What’s more important to you high hatch rate or cheapest possible solution. Are these high temps just for a couple hours a day?
My first thought for quick and dirty solution would be an old refrigerator even one that doesn’t work might be good enough. Put your incubator inside the fridge with the door open all night while it’s cool out. Then first thing in the morning close the door to hold out the outside heat. It might stay cool enough to get you through the heat of the day. You could possibly even add a block of ice if needed. Just an off the top of my head idea

A working fridge with a thermostat set to cool at to maybe 90 ish degrees might be more stable but would also be more expensive and more upfront work.