Building your own incubator

[Poulets De Cajun]

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THAT is an interesting bator! Whats that Horizon box mounted to the side.?

 

[Jaybr]

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Do you mean the Helix box? That's the thermostat.

 

[rooster-red]

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You don't want a fan with a high cfm rating, all you need is something to gently circulate air.

A PC power supply fan works great.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

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Even if the cabinet is larger than a normal PC Tower. And here is another question, to you put the fan blowing air in, or blowing air out? Or do you just put the fan inside with no access to outside air? I was going to cut a small hole in the side and put the fan over it.

 

[rooster-red]

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Even if the cabinet is larger than a normal PC Tower. And here is another question, to you put the fan blowing air in, or blowing air out? Or do you just put the fan inside with no access to outside air? I was going to cut a small hole in the side and put the fan over it.

You want to circulate the air inside the bator that is already at the proper temp/humidity, so I placed mine in a corner with no outside air access.

You will need fresh air vent holes elsewhere in the bator for air exchange.

I have a 48 qt cooler with a PC fan, its 3 times the volume of a PC, but the PC fan works perfectly. Remember, the fan that is in a PC is used to cool the power supply, in the bator all it needs to do is distribute the air for more even temps.

 

[Jaybr]

Mine took some work on the fan size and location to get it right, mainly because the eggs are in a drawer which the hot air can flow great on the backside, ok on the sides, and no flow at the front. I tried small cpu size fan, and the temp differences from front to back of the drawer where 6-8*. Standard PC fan gave me 3-4* difference, then I found a larger fan inside an old server and in the correct position I'm down to less than 1/2* difference front to back.

The temp difference I was seeing is only when heat source is on and it would stabilize eventually, but at this point my bator will climb from 70* room temp to stable 100* in less than 30 minutes

I'll rotate the eggs front to back in the drawer every few days just in case.

I'm not worried too much about the extra flow generated by the larger fan because the eggs are tucked down inside a drawer.

Of course this is all in theory as my first batch of eggs is in it now

 

[lesliet]

Just pulled the fan out of an old computer and this weekend i will try to get everything else i need, It will be fun to put it together. this has just so much information that i was looking for
Big thanks to everyone

 

[rooster-red]

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In your situation the extra flow shouldn't hurt anything.

It will be interesting to see what your hatch rate is with this design. Keep us posted.

 

[Jaybr]

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I will, I've got 13 guinea eggs and 11 barred rock eggs in there, set 6 days apart.

The thermostat is fantastic, so if this doesn't work well I'll find an old upright freezer and build a new one.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Ok, I've built my cabinet this morning. It is 18 inches wide, by 23 inches deep, by 30 inches tall. Its made out of OSB Board. I'll have to seal the seams with some caulk but so far its looking good. I want to put weather stripping around the front, and make the door out of plexiglass.

I built it around my egg turner that goes with my LG Styro bator. The turner fits into a wooden tray with a wire bottom that I built, and the whole assembly slides onto rails on the inside of the cabinet. I am hoping to have enough room to put two trays with turners and a third on the bottom for a hatching tray.

If I am figuring right, this should be about 5 cubic feet. How many lightbulbs and at what wattage would I need to sufficiently heat this thing? I want to use at least 2 sockets and wire them in sequence so that if one bulb burns at least you have a backup. I was thinking if I use 2 40w bulbs, that will give me 80w of heat, governed by a water heater thermostat.