Chic Chick 'Bator *UPDATED*

[SilverDuck284]

I moved the thermostat, its upside down at the bottom of the Bator so the metal side is about an inch from the bulb. It is so much more sensitive I can't believe it's the same one. The variation is down to 1-2 degrees, I am still adjusting the temp tho. I was at 100-102, then I was at 96-98. Hopefully 3rd times the charm and I will be right on target. Thanks for your advice, however I did not drill wholes in it tho. I don't have a drill.

I have a question about turning. I plan to incubate 8 eggs, and placing them 4 on each side. If I put them in egg crates with the bottoms cut off, and and know they need to be broad side up, would tilting the Bator be sufficient? Its pretty small so there's not much room for heat sinks, I don't want to open it except for candling.

Thanks for the help!

 

[quintinp]

I moved the thermostat, its upside down at the bottom of the Bator so the metal side is about an inch from the bulb. It is so much more sensitive I can't believe it's the same one. The variation is down to 1-2 degrees, I am still adjusting the temp tho. I was at 100-102, then I was at 96-98. Hopefully 3rd times the charm and I will be right on target. Thanks for your advice, however I did not drill wholes in it tho. I don't have a drill.
I have a question about turning. I plan to incubate 8 eggs, and placing them 4 on each side. If I put them in egg crates with the bottoms cut off, and and know they need to be broad side up, would tilting the Bator be sufficient? Its pretty small so there's not much room for heat sinks, I don't want to open it except for candling.
Thanks for the help!

You might be able to do that, I actually suggest getting a dozen egg carton cut in half, 6 on one side 6 on the other side, and cutting the bottoms out, and placing a 6 inch long 1 1/4 inch wide PVC pipe, and gluing the PVC to the bottom of the egg carton in the slot between the 3 eggs on each side of the bottom of the egg carton. And in the morning you could open the incubator to tilt them, and at night you could tilt them to the other side.

 

[SilverDuck284]

Yeah I've read about the PVC turners, but they are so big, my little incubator would be cramped with all that in it. Plus, wouldn't that leave a big whole when you take it out during the hatch? I want to just prop one side of the Bator at like 30-45 degree angle, and switch sides odd number of times a day.

 

[Curiousboy]

Hi im very ecited bout your incubator ive had built one from http://farmsweetfarm-s.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-homemade-egg-incubator.html that site but sumhow my first hatch didnt succeed my temperature/humidity went off by alot and i did many hole and this time i have 3 eggs cureenlty right now n temperature seems alright n humidity too but ive beennwanting to make a differnt one and urs looks just perfect!! But i want to know what is the temperature i need to have and humidity i hope to hear from you very soon so i can start on this incubator thanks again

 

[Nomibear]

I'm only up to pg 45 on this thread. Have to mark it so I can finish

 

[Nomibear]

And done!!
Although I wanted to get into incubating one day, (my girls are only 17 weeks and have no Roo) I thought I would have to save up for one of the expensive ones, or still pay $100+ for a good used one. Thank you for this thread! Now that I have seen all of you do it, and many of you had good hatches, I know this is something I can take on! The instructions are simple and clear. Exactly what I would need

 

[Indigosands]

Thanks to missprissy and this thread, I now own an incubator, a GREAT one! I followed some of the other member's advice and found great insight in some problems others had and the way they solved them. I have had it running for 48hrs now and it's stayed stable right at 99 and 49-50% humidity. I did a practice run on the humidity rise for lockdown and again it performed flawlessly. I don't intend to hatch until spring, I'll add the results when I do but for now, here's a pic while I was doing those final little hair-trigger adjustments on the thermostat. Missprissy, what do you think of my fun ducktape! I think I went over the $20 a bit but hey what do you expect in california.

I used a frozen food foam packing box. I cut out the lid and from that cut two 2" strips to place in the bottom as support for the wire tray and hot glued them down. Glued the glass in the lid and covered with tape. I can't work with hardware cloth, I don't have the hand strength, so I bought "bbq vegetable trays" at walmart and covered the edges in tape. The tray is a little rough so I put shelf liner over it. I poked a hole in the right side and inserted some aquarium tubing through it with a clean syringe on the end to fill the water without opening the lid. The tube rests inside a disp. tupperware container with a sponge inside it. On the opposite side, same type of container filled with water and closed with it's lid to create heat sink.

Dh did the wiring for me, I learned a lot watching him. I asked that the fan be above the water supply to distribute humidity and that the light be above the heat sink with the thermometer (with 3 xtra holes drilled in it per Rushpoultry's instructions) approximately 2" away. Dh used the leftover foam rings in the light kit to space the thermometer away from the wall. I added a collar out of aluminum foil to the light later on and affixed with electrical tape because I noticed a lot of variance between my air and water temp and I suspected that the light being in close proximity to the homemade water wiggler was causing it. I was correct. The temps stabilized from a 3 degree swing to less than 1 when I added the collar and the heat sink in the bottom right corner in the form of a slim shampoo bottle filled with water. My water wiggler is only in the cup because it began to leak. I haven't found the real deal yet so the extra tupperware it's sitting in will be gone when I do. I have 2 pick sized vent holes on each long end about 3" up from the bottom and 1 on each short end. I have two large vent holes on the long sides of the box about 3" down from the top and plugged with some dowels we had laying around for a total of 4. We don't drink, so no wine corks. On the side of the box I taped a baggie to put my dowel-plugs into when I took them out so that they wouldn't become lost or contaminated from sitting out. What else... my thermometer is a Accurite, it wasn't as cheap as some people stated, mine ran about $13. I did wind up using a 40 watt bulb instead of 25, the 25 watt bulb wasn't heating the box fast enough and therefore was not cycling or even able to keep up. I have a tiny wire command hook in the bator on the wall to hold the thermometer upright. My fan was very shallow, so I cut 3/4 inch pieces of drinking straw to space it from the wall.

I will come back to this thread and add my results after my first hatch in it, what worked, what didn't. What I wind up changing and what my hatch rate was!

Thanks again! Hope this bump encourages more people to give this a try, I spent under $30, saved myself $100 on what I had planned to buy and learned SO much, things that would have taken a lot longer to discover or understand if I had simply purchased my bator. I wouldn't have truly understood how each factor affects the process. Cool stuff!



Under the mat:

 

[Nomibear]

Love the tape! Very pretty bator. Looking forward to your updates

 

[Indigosands]

So I have completed my first hatch in my chick chick bator and I LOVE it! There are a few things I will change about my setup. I need to put all of the heat sinks on the bottom to maximize floor space and I need a guard around the light. I also need to close that small gap in the side of the floor grate because I forgot how small a space a chick can slip into and I had one that fell and I had to rescue it!

If I could do it again, I would also consider cutting the lid in half and putting a glass on either side so that I could open one side of the lid only to minimize the exposure to outside air for turning and assisting during hatch.

My hatch was 1 clear, 1 pipped at wrong end chick that didn't live, and 4 healthy chicks. I ran the humidity at 40-45% for the first 18 days and bumped it to 60-65% for the lock down. My temps ran from 99-100 for the whole hatch with an occasional dip down to 98. I didn't have a hard time maintaining it at all, and my temps and humidity returned to normal within a 1/2 hr of opening it every time. The biggest help for keeping mine stable was the heat sinks.

And here's the product of my chick chick bator! Four easter eggers from my own stock.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

thanks for all the info.... we made a coolerbator..... but we changed it around because of ONE BIG REASON....

What if your only using one light and the hotwater heater thermostat and the bulb blows?
you will loose your hatch if you dont catch it. We hatch shipped eggs and they cost a fortune....

I do suggest, if ONLY for the reason listed above.... spend the extra $5. and get the wafer thermostat and use TWO BULBS! with it located between the bulbs, if one blows your covered! and if THAT IS NOT ENOUGH to change your mind.... the wafer thermostat has less than a degree variance, better than MOST incubators, easy to set and your done! not like fiddlin with the heater thermostat trying to get it close enough to the bulb for little temp variance... we switched ours out fast! Our Daughter, who is 8 just had a 100% hatch on local eggs, and her first hatch in it!! I took most of the ideas from this thread and took it further on the homework.... I have a bunch of notes and videos and stuff I compiled when making it... its sorta chaotic in the article, havent had time to clean it up, but all the info is thrown in there that we used! The link is in my signature or https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubator-incubator I suggest the videos, love his videos!!













I suggest a larger piece of plexi, kids LOVE watching and bump heads on ours LOL