Help with homemade Incubator, tips?

[drowe005]

Whats your opinion for the best material for a homemade incubator? Pros and cons of certain materials? I was thinking a plywood box, with a plexiglass window on front, probably 24" X 12",or possibly a little larger, but was unsure of how deep to make it. I plan to be using it to hatch Chukar eggs, never too many at a time as I've only got one breeding pair. I plan on using a light bulb or 2 for the heat source with a dimmer to control temperature, and a cup/bowl of water inside to contribute humidity. What design would be better, light above the eggs, or eggs located on a shelf above the heat source? If its the shelf method, i would assume a wood frame with wire flooring? Thanks for any opinions and I am open to any thoughts or tips as this soon coming breeding season will be my first attempt at hatching eggs. Thanks

 

[cva34]

Consider Inside to fit a turner in Like Hov or LG (you may not want it right now but you will ) matter fact my first build I bought the Turner first and built around it..Odds are a dimmer switch won't get it unless you got hands on 24/7...Thermostats like Waffer are proven and $25 (old Tec) .Incubator Warehouse, Digital about $50 (I got one on 3rd hatch works great + or- .5 deg.. .Ranco 111000 ,great unit + or - 1 deg $50. EBAY .Hot water heater thermostats are just that.Like shaveing with AXE.Yea a few people swear by them; I Swear at them (WH thermostats)...Consider a bad Apartment Fridge.There cheap and well insulated .The ones like Cube i've looked at don't fit turner well .The 30'' taller fit better and 40 watt to 60watt of heat will do it..cva34

 

[drowe005]

Thanks for the input, I'm hopefully planning on picking up someones old full size refridgerator later today to convert, more than likely just convert the freezer, or I could go all out and do the big part to be set up for the future. I'm also still in the search for a mini fridge, as I think that would be more space friendly and look better, and easier to heat and maintain heat. If I understand correctly, an egg turner only tilts the eggs, not actually turn them? If I understand that right, would simply placing something under the egg crates to tilt every so often be sufficient? Or does is need to be so often that that wouldn't be practical? Another option I was considering, that is if it would be necessary to buy the digital thermostats etc., it seems as if it would be the same price to buy a still air incubator at Southern States for $40. Do you have an opinion on still air versus the other haha (dont know what its called but the one with the fan) ? What do you think would be the best route, Im open to anything

 

[aprophet]

the ones that southern states sells are Lg's not many folks like them I use HB's and they work well for me I built a coupla plywood box bators when I first started and it is not hard to get one to work WH t-stats stink unless you have a lot of time to "tweak " them like has been mentioned I use the thermo disc type and it works well. the one mistake I made was not measuring an auto turner and building the box to fit it