I'm new here, but have been lurking for a while now. I live in west central IL and I just love this board - very knowledgeable and friendly people here. I hatched 5 button quail in July with a borrowed incubator and am going to try hatch some for our local pet stores. Both were interested, and I know I won't be able to quit my day job, but I just love the little buggers and my daycare kids really enjoyed watching them hatch. (We also have monarch chrysalises - had 1 "hatch" and another on the way. Sooo neat!)
I just made an incubator using Miss Prissy's guidelines that I had found earlier, but hadn't run across this thread before. Lot's of info! I, too, couldn't find a water wiggler (you know how it goes - when you don't want/need something you see it all the time, but when you do want it, there's none to be found) so I am trying two refreezable ice cubes taped together with the accurite probe in the middle. Takes up a lot less space, also, than a water wiggler would. However, it seems to be running .5 - 1 degree hotter than what the two air temp thermometers are showing. Should this be happening?? Maybe the ice cubes aren't going to work. I don't have eggs in it yet - just trying to be sure everything is working correctly.
I would love to have a few chickens if I can talk my husband into it. Probably a project for next summer.