can u turn food dehydrator into incubator??

[tnorton072205]

Hi everyone i am new to this site but have a little bit of experience in raising chickens. I am currently incubating 14 eggs in a dehydrator. I started off with 17 so 3 haven't made it so far. My temp is always steady at 99.5 -100 the humidity is hard to get it up to 50% but doesn't get lower than 30%. I put bowls of water in the bottom to help but it doesnt seem like enough to put the humidity up to 65%. I am on day 9 of incubation so if they hatch I will come back here and give my results.

 

[tnorton072205]

So far its day 20 and I currently have 2 baby chicks out of their shell. You have to put as much water as you can because the humidity seems to fluctuate alot. Then again I think my hydrometer might be off a bit. Still waiting on a few eggs to hatch so I will be back to give updates.

 

[tnorton072205]

Well I guess it can be done. I have a total of 7 chicks would have 8 if I didn't take him out of the incubation to early and put him with the others with food and water. He was too weak and drowned in the little water dish made for chicks. I guess shit happens

 

[junecakes]

If you use a closed container (like Tupperware) within the dehydrator where humidity is kept isn't this fine?

I'd open the lid to rotate the eggs so there is gas exchange anyway. In the last three days before hatching (days 14—17?) I'd place a small wet sponge (large surface area for evaporation) inside the same container to increase the humidity. I figured this will be better at temperature regulation (99°F) than a heat lamp and infrared thermometer.

Perhaps I'm wrong. If so, someone please correct me because I'm going to hatch some quail using this method in the coming weeks.

 

[awmosby]

If you use a closed container (like Tupperware) within the dehydrator where humidity is kept isn't this fine?

I'd open the lid to rotate the eggs so there is gas exchange anyway. In the last three days before hatching (days 14—17?) I'd place a small wet sponge (large surface area for evaporation) inside the same container to increase the humidity. I figured this will be better at temperature regulation (99°F) than a heat lamp and infrared thermometer.

Perhaps I'm wrong. If so, someone please correct me because I'm going to hatch some quail using this method in the coming weeks.

If your dehydrator has an adjustable temperature, it would be probable, but you would want to do a dry run to get everything right. The major difference between an incubator and dehydrator is the amount of air exchange, but the temperature is going to be considerably higher in fixed temperature models--mine, for example, is preset to 160 degrees; to compensate, air exchange in the outer container (the dehydrator) would need to be increased to drop the temperature of the inner container. The inner would also still need some constant airflow between turnings.

If the dehydrator has an adjustable thermostat, though, the inner container shouldn't be needed; just locate and block the vents on the dehydrator (except for a couple of half-inch holes,) block a good deal of the fresh air intakes, and put a small bowl of water inside.

 

[jas humbert]

@missnu01, I i'm not sure I correctly understand what you are saying but ambient humidity = inner humidity? I hatched my eggs last month in my garage with no A/C. Humidity in the garage before turning on the incubator averaged 50-70%. (I'm in a pretty humid section of the country). Once I fired up the incubator and got the temperature consistent for a day or so- without adding any water of any kind, the humidity inside my incubator was running 30-32%. The heat took way more humidity out of the air than I imagined it would. You can always experiment before putting eggs in but I think you will find the room humidity will be higher than the humidity inside the dehydrator-incubator. I think it is a clever idea and you can always experiment with adding water containers and sponges to see what you can do to raise humidity.

 

[Sprytle]

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??

We have several neighbors whose birds are laying eggs in various places on our property and the neighbors don't want the eggs, so when I find them, I put them in our excalibur dehydrator, 99.5-100 degrees and a large rectangular tray of water on the bottom. I leave one dehydrator tray in and put it just above the water tray, The eggs go on this tray. I have never tested the humidity and the eggs that end up not hatching usually weren't fertilized to begin with, but there are some that don't fully form. The partially developed eggs are kept in the same space as the ones that end up hatching, so I'm assuming it's a genetic issue rather than a problem with the incubation. When I first started "saving" these eggs from nightly predators, I didn't expect such a high success rate, but then again, I'm just supply9ing a constant heat source and some nearby water for humidity, I'm really not the one doing all the hard work!

 

[PaulosWalkeros]

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.

What hsppened? Some wood ducks nesting in our tree were scared off and left 5 or 6 eggs, and we've got a food dryer, but not an incubator... could it work?

 

[PaulosWalkeros]

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.

What happened? I've just inherited 6 fertile duck eggs and we have a food dryer... which can be set to 35 degrees celcius, could that work?

 

[PaulosWalkeros]

We have several neighbors whose birds are laying eggs in various places on our property and the neighbors don't want the eggs, so when I find them, I put them in our excalibur dehydrator, 99.5-100 degrees and a large rectangular tray of water on the bottom. I leave one dehydrator tray in and put it just above the water tray, The eggs go on this tray. I have never tested the humidity and the eggs that end up not hatching usually weren't fertilized to begin with, but there are some that don't fully form. The partially developed eggs are kept in the same space as the ones that end up hatching, so I'm assuming it's a genetic issue rather than a problem with the incubation. When I first started "saving" these eggs from nightly predators, I didn't expect such a high success rate, but then again, I'm just supply9ing a constant heat source and some nearby water for humidity, I'm really not the one doing all the hard work!

Thanks. I might try it too. What about turning them over or rolling them.. do you do that? If so, how often