Help in incubator PLEASE, what all did we forget?!

[ChobeeChickenMommy]

Ok my hubby & I had made out bator out of a cooler but I just started doing a little more research & I found something that said we needed to drill 3 holes on one side for circulation..??? Is this true? We have our light bulb mounted on the side w/ the curve over the wheels & the chicken wire (hardware wire) that lines the bottom of the cooler also wraps up & around the bend as well so any hatched chickies can't get burned by the bulb. We have a small container w/ a wet sponge for the humidity, a digital thermometer that reads both temp & humidity, & the eggs are ready to go in unless we need to make modifications. Did we miss something, anything?! Thank y'all in advance!

 

[Glenmar]

The eggs do need fresh air.

 

[ChobeeChickenMommy]

Quote:
Ok, my hubby is pulling the wire out really quick. The cooler is 35qts my hubby thinks, How many holes should we drill & where at? on one of the long sides, or the short side directly opposite of the light bulb? Also do I need to make a walmart run for a fan?

 

[cmom]

I did add a fan to mine as the incubator had a hot spot and a cool spot. The fan did help to stabilize the temp throughout the incubator. I did put holes in it I put two on top, and some on the side and one on each end. I have a 15 watt light bulb in it and it gets plenty hot.

 

[Wyogirl]

Quote:
Like your setup
Ayda

 

[ChobeeChickenMommy]

Quote:
Like your setup
Ayda

Wow, cmom! I 2nd that! The baby was fussy so I didn't make a walmart run, but we have completely redid our setup again. And we were trying to figure out where to put the holes. So we should put maybe 2 on each side or so for air flow & 1 or 2 on top? In your opinion? I'm gonna try & grab a pic or 2 of what we have so far.

 

[quintinp]

Well, you are going to need to post about 3 good pictures. I didn't read anything about a thermostat, or a fan. Do you have one?

These are my ventilation holes, behind the fan in the first picture to pull in fresh air.

 

[quintinp]

Also, for those of you out there, who know that the water heater thermostat shouldn't be against the wall, the thermostat has holes drilled in it. And this incubator doesn't fluctuate AT ALL. I thought my thermometer was broke for a while, because I expected some kind of temperature fluctuation. But I didn't get any.

 

[ChobeeChickenMommy]

Quote:
Umm, I hadn't seen anything about a thermostat... Is it to control the light bulbs heat? & there is a local feed store not 5 min from my house that opens at 7am & I was going to call them in the am about a fan... We don't have an egg turner thing yet, but I read where I can do it by hand. That's ok right? Ok, well here are our starter pics...

Side view... hubby is drilling vent holes in it now. (3 on the big sides & 2 on the small one)

inside (We don't have the bowl w/ sponge in there yet or our thermometer)

Lid & partial inside..

Where the bulb goes in.

 

[ChobeeChickenMommy]

Ok here are the next set of pics...

Lid

Front side

Back side

Side opposite the light

Inside through lid. (Temp slowly going up since we set it up outside & it was around 68 out there.)