Building Homemade Incubator

[FloridaChick88]

My boyfriend is working on building an incubator out of an old mini fridge. Do you all have any recommendations as far as heating elements, air circulation, humidity control and egg turners?

 

[gpop1]

My boyfriend is working on building an incubator out of an old mini fridge. Do you all have any recommendations as far as heating elements, air circulation, humidity control and egg turners?

really would have to see what mini fridge you have to start with. Can you post a few pictures including what the inside looks like

 

[FloridaChick88]

This is the only picture i have of it right now.

 

[gpop1]

lots of different options as the inside is large.

first thing is the fridge runs off a compressor that contains gas. Its illegal to vent the gas and it has to be reclaimed. Maybe yours is no longer working because it had a gas leak and the gas is already gone.

you can go with a Ptc , light bulb, heat strip, heat mat or a bunch of other options.

Light bulbs are the easy go to heater but they can be annoying on a glass front incubator. When the incubator needs heat the bulbs come on and that constant on/off can be distracting if the incubator is keep in the house. about 120w of lights would be required.

Ptc are cheap but there not available of the shelf so if you go this route then you will have to order a spare at the same time.

Both of these options require fans to move the air and baffles to direct the air so it circulates.

heat mats work but they can be difficult to affix to the inside it would still require a fan to avoid hot spots.

My advice is to start with a plan based on the space you have available, your boyfriends skills and your budget

The most space required is going to be for the turners. Your fridge may be wide enough to except standard turner trays like this




There are some down sides to this as the turner does not allow much room for the air flow but they can me modified by removing one rail to allow the air to flow up the rear.

another option is to make a turner that tilts like


this can works out cheaper then turners especially if you want 3 levels or more.

There are some great incubator build on this site. Take a look at all the different designs to see what type you like then we can see if that design could be made to work with the fridge that you have to start with

 

[gpop1]

this thread is worth reading. It mentions most of the basic

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...bator-how-we-did-it-and-test-run-ready-set-go