Home-made cabinet incubator temp question *HATCHING*

[jvls1942]

You can either not turn or keep turning during lockdown..I have done it either way.. I have had lots of eggs hatch unexpectedly while turning..

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! Come to think of it, I've had eggs hatch in the turner before. Thanks for reminding me.

Lisa

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! Here is a shot of The Beast's innards! It's not a pretty sight, but temp is stable all-over

Got eggs set 4/21, 4/28, and I'll add the 4th rack on 5/4.
Each rack will hold 106 eggs comfortably.
That 'loose egg' on the middle rack got cracked when the screws holding the rack supports gave way --- screws were too short and 100 eggs weigh A LOT --- it was waiting for the glue to dry (I could have tossed it, but it is my first fertile egg this year from my old Jersey Giants).

Lisa

 

[llrumsey]

I have one made from a small fridge, I bought an electric thermastate on ebay. We have 3 sets of light bulbs in 3 different places. Our problem is the thermastate wont stay on an even temp. it goes from about 89 to 101 then back to 89.

Do you think that changing the thermastate would make it work better? One light bulb is near the top the next is on the right side near the second shelf and the third is in the back near the next shelf. WE are also thinking about putting in a fan, do you think that would help?

I would really like to get this figured out so we can use it. The small table top just isnt enough for what I want to do.

thanks for any help you could give me.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I would go with a fan before I tried anything else..

Do you have a wafer type thermostat? Otherwise, I am guessing you bought one of those water heater thermostats.. they tend to swing like that..

do not be shy about putting a good sized fan in there.. You want the air to really get homogenized.. You are going to have somebody tell you that you do not want any noticable air movement ,.. that is BULL.. the fans in two of my incubators makes my hair blow when I open the door.. these are 2000 egg comercial incubators I am talking about.. I think the manufacturer of these units know what they are doing.. they have been in business since about 1910...

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Major design flaw! Put the top rack in today with this weeks eggs (or attempted to). Can only squish my hand in sideways because of big overhang to accomodate thermostat mounting (and my inadequate woodworking skills).
No room for cartons to scoot in, so I just laid the eggs sideways on the wire rack. I'm thunking myself that I didn't see this before. There is room for the eggs and temp is stable there, but the space is practically out of reach because of the 1 1/5" overhang that is the brace for the doors. If I cut that off, I'll have to modify the doors OR just blindly hand turn those eggs on the top rack.
That laughter you hear in the background is my husband, he doesn't get the difference in a 300 egg incubator and a 400 egg incubator, duh.

Lisa

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! I wish I could help (hope the fan suggested by JVLS1942 did), but I'm flying by the seat-of-my-pants myself and not in a position to offer advice.

Lisa
Quote:

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi!
196 eggs were growing on Day 18. Yaaay for the Beast!
But another flaw came to light.
The 'Beast Hatcher' only fits 172 eggs (I didn't plan for where they were going to hatch), so I had to rush 2 dozen out to broody hens (thank goodness for broody hens). It looked like a HUGE space until I started moving eggs. I was planning on laying them on their sides to hatch, but because of space issues I had to keep them upright in their cut-down cartons.

I thought hatch day would be 5/12 because incubator temp wouldn't come up past 95 degrees for the first 24 hrs, but apparently I was wrong --- got 3 'early bird' chicks just hatched.

I'm not real happy with the hatcher. I took it all apart, and rebuilt it. Used a bigger fan (same position, but blowing up) and this fan is a cyclone. Temp and humidity are good, but too much wind. I might move it to the bottom like the incubator, pulling air down.
I increased humidity up to 80-ish% to compensate for the breeze --- that doesn't really make sense, but I was running dry Day 1 - 18 and I'm compensating.
And I had to add a 40W lightbulb because the LG element didn't have enough umph for the space (not surprisingly, again).
Excuse the duct tape around the viewing window and lack of hardware, Ihesitate about adding all the hardware back before I see that it works --- taking it apart and putting it back together is getting tiresome. The hatcher has wood doors that cover that whole space over the hatchers hinged 'viewing window', but I won't put those back on until I'm for sure I'm happy with it all.
The next 24 hrs will tell the tale. Cross your fingers.

Lisa

 

[tazcat70]

It looks great! Out of those 172 how many hatched?

 

[Waheed Khan 734]

Hi,
Please don't use Electronic Thermostate, it have much error in reading the actual temprature.

The GQF Wafer Thermostate is the best Thermostate for the Eggs Incubator, i have 99% result. i had also make my own home made incubator, i put in it, it have very good result.