Home made cabinet incubator

[WalnutHill]

I put a window in the door today so I can peek without opening the door.

It's just two layers of window shrink film, one inside and one outside, with a 3/4" air gap and double stick tape all the way around. I haven't "shrunk" the film yet.

Rock solid temps in this big old box...and the top is a great place to start tomato and pepper seeds.

 

[WalnutHill]

Day 10 of incubation...half of the refrigerated purchased eggs were clears, three of 15 of my eggs were clear (which means I have two VERY hard working roosters with those 110 hens!), and three eggs were disposed with blood rings.

So of 26 fertile eggs, 23 have made it to day 10. Still no temperature or humidity fluctuations, despite temps changing from 0 to 65 to 40s, and humidity from < 20% to over 50% outside. My office temps range from 58 to 67, but the incubator has run a steady 38-38.5C, 99.5-101.3F, which is where I set it for turkeys and has worked well for chickens i the past.

On March 30 I will find out if this incubator needs any tweaking. I'll be setting the final eggs from my mature hens before this hatch is complete because I've sold my layers and need to grow my replacement stock.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sounds like you are on a roll! What's your egg capacity?

 

[KentuckyMom]

I am still intrigued.

 

[VikkiP]

I built it to hold up to 5 auto turners, 4 turners/1 hatcher, or 3 turners/2 hatchers, so anywhere from 41 to 205 chicken eggs with auto turners. I am loading in 24 more of our flock's finest, as I found a buyer for my older flock and want to hatch their replacements. I built it big because I can load turkey eggs in only half of the turner cups, and I want to hatch about 80 turkeys, if I can ever get any eggs

 

[WalnutHill]

I built it to hold up to 5 auto turners, 4 turners/1 hatcher, or 3 turners/2 hatchers, so anywhere from 41 to 205 chicken eggs with auto turners. I am loading in 24 more of our flock's finest, as I found a buyer for my older flock and want to hatch their replacements. I built it big because I can load turkey eggs in only half of the turner cups, and I want to hatch about 80 turkeys, if I can ever get any eggs

This is my post but from my mobile device...

I gathered and marked 24 eggs today from my coop and just set them. The incubator air temperature has not changed, though the humidity has dropped a bit.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm confused: VikkiP and Walnut Hill. Are you related?

 

[WalnutHill]

One and the same. I saved the credentials on my old computer when I joined with my VikkiP account and promptly lost track of it. A couple of years ago I joined again, then remembered I had once been a member. But my Walnut Hill account is on my desktop, and my VikkiP account is on my iPad, and if I could merge them it would be a good day. I should just abandon one or the other.

 

[lazy gardener]

Well, ok then. Just think of the fun and commotion you could stir up on BYC by posting questions and info, then answering and argueing with yourself! No end to the entertainment there!!!

 

[WalnutHill]

HA! Well if I ever get that desperate I'll go talk to my turkeys. They answer back with a lot less typing!

I couldn't stand to see that second tray with extra space, so I filled it. 23 to hatch on the 30th, 41 to hatch on the 10th. Easter Eggers galore!

Can someone please squeeze their turkeys and find me 6 dozen eggs? Mine haven't started yet, they are on the young side and haven't learned to appreciate my beautiful Narri tom.