DIY incubators

[KenjiQuacker]

hello : )
I'm making a homemade incubator for my new quail eggs, can you guys share ones you've made? I'd love to see them, and I'm curious about how you each made yours!

 

[EverV]

I've never made a homemade incubator, but I'm definitely following this thread!

 

[KenjiQuacker]

I've never made a homemade incubator, but I'm definitely following this thread!

I haven't made one yet either, so i'm interested in seeing other people's homemade incubators too!

 

[Mellowmalt]

this is the best design I have come across

The reason it is so good is because it has 5 even heating sources all around the incubator (better than just 1 large heater), it is round, this improves circulation of air to minimise pockets of hot or cold, it has an inbuilt egg turner and is cheap to make.

The one I am using now is a square insulated fish box, I have a heater in a small seperate box with a fan blowing through it. I used to have the heat lamp I use hanging freely in the incubator but this creates many hot/cold areas. Having the fan blow evenly over the heat lamp distributes the heat better. I am definetely switching to round incubators in future.
I built an automatic egg turner but even though my fish box is quite big it all gets cramped very fast with a heater, a fan, thermometers, water bowls, the eggs, I had no space left for my egg turner.

The sides of the incubator will always be much colder than the middle of the incubator. A fan helps distribute the heat but sides will always be cooler as that is where heat is escaping out the incubator. So eggs to the side will not stay as hot as eggs in the middle. This is a problem with most incubators, with DIY incubators you can fiddle and experiment to try to get a good result.

DIY incubators are either no good or they are better than most store bought ones. It just takes a bit of adjusting in most cases. Like I avoid having the fan blow directly onto eggs, this just dries them and does not heat them well, better is to have the fan blow on the heat source to stop it overheating and have the fan distribute the air indirectly through the incubator mainly along the walls as that is where the incubator will be coolest.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

I made a hatcher out of a decent sized cooler and temp controller from EBAY. It worked well for the past year. It included fans, light bulb heat sources and a viewing window...

 

[Berryworm]

I had friends build a still air incubator with a thermostat and a heating plate from aliexpress, I think the ones in the links below, and 18 of 21 eggs hatched. Heating plate on top, a few cm from the eggs, and the sensor of the thermostat at the height at the top of the eggs set to 38.2°C

Thermostat

Heater