I just tried my homemade incubator and had no success. I think it was because there was too many temperature spikes and drops. I would like to add modifications to my incubator so it is much less maintenance. This is my bator when i had chickens in them. the fence usually isn't there only for the last couple of days so they can move around when they are peeping Usually it is a rack. I think i went wrong by the way the eggs are faced. should they be faced with the fat end up and be moved side to side rather than all the way over? I would like any suggestions to make my incubator less maintnence as far as temp and turning the eggs. Also I would like the budget to stay under 10-15 dollars.
I have an auto turner in mine it is a rack that holds the eggs vertically with the big end up, it basically tilts the eggs from side to side, if you can imagine an egg standing perfectly straight on it's small end the rack tilts the eggs to the left then back to the right every so often, it goes maybe 50 or 60 degrees each way. You could try to mimic that somehow? Maybe use a section of egg carton to stand the eggs up in and place a chunk of pvc pipe or wooden dowel of large enough diameter under the carton to allow you to leave the eggs in the carton section and just rock it from side to side over the pipe or dowel, that would mimic what my auto turn does, and wouldn't cost much but it would still have to be done by hand unless you make some sort of handle to reach in and tilt it. I assume this is a homemade unit? What are you using for a thermostat? Have you considered adding thermal mass to the incubator? Thermal mass would be adding something which stores heat such as some water bottles or maybe even rocks? They will heat to the set temp and help hold it there, I'd imagine that may help a lot in small incubator.
Well it would be best if you could tell us just how much your temp swing was, the show us pics of your heating and thermostat set up and I'm sure someone could help you from there. As far as what end of the egg need to go up... it always the biggest side up (that's where the are sack is). If you laying the egg on its side... you really done have to worry about.
