can u turn food dehydrator into incubator??

[omelette'smom]

I looked online for incubator ideas and saw some great homemade ones etc. Can you turn a single trayed food dehydrator into an incubator somehow? the temps range 90degrees and up so its humidity that's the issue! Is there something to add or remove from the wiring?

My mother-in-law has an over-abundance of STUFF and i'm sure she'll have a few kicking around. My kids will be hatching some out in the spring..........

oh who am i trying to kid here...I'LL be hatching some out in the spring

and was thinking of some financial alternatives. Any feed back??

 

[UrbanMama]

I had the same thought when I was looking into making a bator. I know I've made yogurt in a dehydrator.... Like you said, humidity would be the issue. Keep us posted if you do end up trying it!

 

[laxrick]

I would try some different things, like placing a bucket of water (or cup, depending on the size of the dehydrator) in there and put a hygrometer in there and see if that gets your humidity where you want it. Dehydrators, as I understand them, don't do anything special to remove moisture besides providing warm air flow.

 

[bheila]

I had a customer of mine who used her food dehydrator to hatch chicks. According to her she was sucessfull. I decided to try mine. Mine looks like a microwave with enough room to slide 8 trays inside. I would be able to fit about 150-200 eggs in it. I did some modifying. I blocked to backside where the air was being pushed out so that the humidity wouldn't be pushed out too fast. I also taped off most of the output holes inside. The temperature held great. The humidity was the issue. I had about a gallon of water in it at one point and I just couldn't get it up past 25%. I even put huge sponges in it and everything else I could think of. So I emailed my friend to see how she had hers set up. She basically described it to me as being the same as mine. She also said that she never even tested the humidity. She just worried about the temp. So I suppose if your into the dry incubating method then it might work for you. I just hate the thought of experimenting on a poor chicks life to see if my dehydrator will work for the dry method. I guess I'm a softy.

 

[omelette'smom]

I just hate the thought of experimenting on a poor chicks life

my thoughts exactly! that's why i was hoping someone would already know the answer!! Thanks for the reply!
so it's either i spend the money or ask one of my broody hens that hate people to sit on some eggs for us!! I have 3 ladies all set in their ways that could rip the skin off your hand if they're in their nest box but on the ground they run away even if you have scratch for them! we call them Nanna, Grammy and Vulture!!

it would be more fun for us to hatch them in an incubator though!​

 

[bheila]

I have an incubator already. I just wanted something bigger and better. I have to find ways to feed my chicken addiction. I'll just suffer with my little styrofoam bator.

Everytime I walk into the spare bedroom and see the dehydrator I'm still trying to think of ways to modify it. I'm sure someone out there has some sort of an idea that we haven't thought of.

 

[peeplessinNC]

Has anyone ever checked into using an electric yogurt maker as an incubator? Not the little individual cups set up, but the 1 quart maker. If you wanted to hatch only 1 or 2 eggs at at time? My Salton unit is an "incubator" for yogurt. Anyone tried it?

 

[missnu01]

Ok..I am going to use an old dehydrator as an incubator. I assume the ambient humidity will be the inner humidity. And that's 30% so good there. Just going to try it and see. I don't think it could possibly be as good as my brinsea, because I get a lot of perfect hatches. But like everyone else I need to be able to hatch more at a time. I can only put 25 max in my brinsea and that's with a few of them being bantam eggs...sooo...here goes nothing.

 

[Bitemynekk]

Great to read these posts, ty! I wanted to buy an incubator but my hubby is being stubborn and saying our dehydrator will work (and leaving the research to me gr). I have had issues with my 3 Wyandotte girls fighting over 2 nest boxes and swapping eggs around, so I'm wanting a way to get the eggs to hatching point in case some hatch early and they stop sitting. I have some fertile eggs from my Araucana's so I'm going to just chuck a few in and see how that goes. I'll let you know if I have any luck.

 

[GranolaLight]

So, has anyone come up with a verdict? I have a huge dehydrator and got to wondering.