Building my own incubator questions:

[NoSpringChick]

Get the fan working and you'll surely see a difference in your water wiggler temperatures...Good Luck

 

[Davaroo]

So I thought maybe one of those little battery operated personal fans would do the trick. The thing is, it is more powerful than I expected and I am wondering it it's possible to have too much air circulation??
Yes. The fan is only there to move air around and level temps in the chamber. No cyclone action is needed or desirable. A source of 12 vdc "wall wart" power supplies is the local thrift store. They usually always have a box full of them and I keepseveral on hand.

Also, I just felt the side of the bator and the fan is causing some vibration...is that harmful?
No.

The fan batteries died within a couple hours so that didnt work.
I figured!

Also, the homemade water wiggler is reading 99.5 but the regular thermometer that just sits in the bator says 110. Is the temp perfect or way too hot?
Believe the water wiggler.

Lastly, my humidity is 46% right now, so I think thats good.
A tad low, but it should suffice.

I am getting eggs shipped in about a week so I want to get this incubator figured out before hand.
SMART!

I can tell you that the water wiggler temp probably just hasn't finished going up. Just wait a couple more hours and see if it keeps going up.
"Stability Through Patient Action" - thats the incubatorists motto.

If you are using the thermometer that came with the bator, throw it out. I place a scientific grade thermo in the chamber for comparison, made for incubation - and it's always off. See, the thermo measures AIR temps in the bator, but the water wiggler measures actual egg temp.

It goes up to about 99.7 wiggler/ 110-112 regular before the thermostat kicks the light off.

Then drops down to about 97 wiggler/100 regular before the light kicks back on.
Youre shooting for an average of 100 in the egg itself. Get the fan going, like Cyn says

 

[donnap1967]

A big thank you to everyone here for all the replies! You guys are so helpful, I just love this forum!

Mission statement for today:
-Hit Party City for a real water wiggler in case the homemade one isnt too good.
-Go to radio Shack for a new DC power converter for my PC fan.


I havent even received the eggs yet and I am already jittery with excitement! Sheesh!

 

[donnap1967]

I have been waiting for the shower (I have three daughters

) and I got to thinking about the power cords I might have laying around. I looked at my daughter's cell phone charger and egads! she has one that I need.

I knew I had two of the cell phones she was using and one had broken and I figured the other charger must be here somewhere! So I searched and searched and OMG there it is! I just wired the old PC fan and it works!! Yay!

I couldnt get those little red and yellow caps to hold the wires together so I just used electrical tape over the exposed parts....hope thats safe. I screwed the fan to the wall and it works!

 

[NoSpringChick]

YEAH!!!! She's in business!

 

[Davaroo]

Make sure there's an inch behind the fan so air can move freely through it.
And I recommend you stop at the hardware store and get some wire nuts soon enough.
Electrical tape is a fair interim fix, but don't rely on it long term.

 

[rooster-red]

If you haven't done so already, grab some hardware cloth and make a guard for the fan and light so that the chicks don't get injured on them.

 

[amyquilt]

Would you share where you found the directions for this homemade incubator??

TIA!

 

[donnap1967]

I copied Miss Prissy's design. She did a great job at explaining the steps with photos too. Here is the link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8510

I was thinking I should probably move the fan away from the wall somehow. Will have to work on that. Otherwise, the temps are doing a lot better. Gonna move the fan and give it another test run tomorrow again. Maybe I can get some pics so you all can give me any last minute thoughts.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Davaroo]

The fan is best moved to the top, centrally mounted. This encourages even air circulation.

That being said, I dont think it matters in such a small airspace. Just having air movement throughout the chamber is sufficient.

I would recommend you NOT crowd the eggs, so air can get all around them. To that end, I confess to being less than enthusiastic about the use of egg cartons inside the bator. The egg has to lose a controlled amount of moisture during incubation, and I am suspicious that the egg carton could hinder that. It seems to appeal more to our sense of order more than providing any real benefit to the egg itself.

But I have no evidence to support that, only my own suspicions. I wont use them, but as always, your mileage may vary.