Home made incubator

[Brookhavens]

You may want to watch Rush Lane's How to build an incubator on You Tube. I built 2 of them,one with a wafer thermostat and the other a hot water thermostat, and I haven't been disappointed yet. They both keep perfect temperature and humidity. When I take a break from hatching and plug them back in it takes all of an hour for them to reach temp.

 

[3forfree]

I was given a mini fridge that I wanted to use for a bator so I went to work putting the same stuff from my cooler bater into the fridge and plugged it in.The temps were on a roller coaster they would go up to 105, then down to 95. I tried moving the hot water thermostat, then changed it to a waterbed thermostat and got the same results. After a week of playing with it I got the temps to stay pretty much at 98-100 so I contacted my farmer friend about eggs and got 24. I put 18 in the fridge bator and 6 in a LG that i've had but never used. When I went out to look at them the next morning (the fridge is in my barn) the temps were up to 105 and the light was on, so I took the eggs out and put them in the LG here in the house. That was 6 days ago. since then the temps are staying good and tomorrow I will candle to see what's up with the eggs.
I don't know why the fridge wouldn't work, I may play with a different thermostat to see if I can keep the temps right. I hatched pheasants and chicks in a styrofoam bator with good luck,

 

[Brookhavens]

I was given a mini fridge that I wanted to use for a bator so I went to work putting the same stuff from my cooler bater into the fridge and plugged it in.The temps were on a roller coaster they would go up to 105, then down to 95. I tried moving the hot water thermostat, then changed it to a waterbed thermostat and got the same results. After a week of playing with it I got the temps to stay pretty much at 98-100 so I contacted my farmer friend about eggs and got 24. I put 18 in the fridge bator and 6 in a LG that i've had but never used. When I went out to look at them the next morning (the fridge is in my barn) the temps were up to 105 and the light was on, so I took the eggs out and put them in the LG here in the house. That was 6 days ago. since then the temps are staying good and tomorrow I will candle to see what's up with the eggs.
I don't know why the fridge wouldn't work, I may play with a different thermostat to see if I can keep the temps right. I hatched pheasants and chicks in a styrofoam bator with good luck,

Maybe try a wafer thermostat. When you installed the hot water therm. did you drill the extra holes in it to make it more sensitive?

 

[3forfree]

A wafer was my next choice. The hot water thermostat was drilled out for my last hatch and I had trouble with it. I had another bator on heat with a waterbed thermostat and swapped them and finished the hatch.

 

[crissycriss]

You may want to watch Rush Lane's How to build an incubator on You Tube. I built 2 of them,one with a wafer thermostat and the other a hot water thermostat, and I haven't been disappointed yet. They both keep perfect temperature and humidity. When I take a break from hatching and plug them back in it takes all of an hour for them to reach temp.

Thanks for the link it helped alot. Hope mine will turn out as good as yours did.

I was given a mini fridge that I wanted to use for a bator so I went to work putting the same stuff from my cooler bater into the fridge and plugged it in.The temps were on a roller coaster they would go up to 105, then down to 95. I tried moving the hot water thermostat, then changed it to a waterbed thermostat and got the same results. After a week of playing with it I got the temps to stay pretty much at 98-100 so I contacted my farmer friend about eggs and got 24. I put 18 in the fridge bator and 6 in a LG that i've had but never used. When I went out to look at them the next morning (the fridge is in my barn) the temps were up to 105 and the light was on, so I took the eggs out and put them in the LG here in the house. That was 6 days ago. since then the temps are staying good and tomorrow I will candle to see what's up with the eggs.
I don't know why the fridge wouldn't work, I may play with a different thermostat to see if I can keep the temps right. I hatched pheasants and chicks in a styrofoam bator with good luck,

 

Good luck to you to.I sure hope you can get your fridge bator working correctly. Now to change the subject I LOVE your avatar.He\she is so beautiful. I used to have a black and white one with one blue eye.She was my baby sadly she died at 6 months.Broke my heart and havent even tried to get another. Jessie was so perfect i know another could live up to my expectations. Ok sorry to get side tracked just had to share.

 

[crissycriss]

You say you have everything you need....Out of curiosity, what are your plans for the incubator? Did you pick one to copy from the site, or do you have your own plans? I went with almost all donated materials, (mini fridge, light fixture, rigid insulation, plexiglass, even the adhesive spray - my only personal expenses were the 100w light bulb and the thermostat). We're getting 70-80% success rates with this contraption, and with a few winter upgrades we hope to get over 90%.
Good luck!

Thank you too!I did get my ideas from Byc but havent copied any one plan.I want to hatch out some pekin and mallard ducks and later on some chicks.This is all new to me so it may take severl trys before i get it right.But my mallards are laying like crazy so i got to give it a try.

 

[Cajun Chooks]

I was given a mini fridge that I wanted to use for a bator so I went to work putting the same stuff from my cooler bater into the fridge and plugged it in.The temps were on a roller coaster they would go up to 105, then down to 95. I tried moving the hot water thermostat, then changed it to a waterbed thermostat and got the same results. After a week of playing with it I got the temps to stay pretty much at 98-100 so I contacted my farmer friend about eggs and got 24. I put 18 in the fridge bator and 6 in a LG that i've had but never used. When I went out to look at them the next morning (the fridge is in my barn) the temps were up to 105 and the light was on, so I took the eggs out and put them in the LG here in the house. That was 6 days ago. since then the temps are staying good and tomorrow I will candle to see what's up with the eggs.
I don't know why the fridge wouldn't work, I may play with a different thermostat to see if I can keep the temps right. I hatched pheasants and chicks in a styrofoam bator with good luck,

I've made 2 incy's from an old fridge or freezer using the water heater thermostat and both work great and hold temps steady. I use 2 lights, 1 is a curly Q 25 watt that stays on constantly. The other is a 40 watt and that is controlled by the thermostat. The thermostat has the added holes in it and it's mounted to a strip of aluminum coil stock that I can bend easy for adjustment about 2 inches from the light. I also used some of the coil stock to make a sheild to block some of the radiant heat. Setting it up is guess work, I usually start with just the light that stays on constantly and let it come up to temperature, I've noticed that it will keep the temp at around 85 degrees. Then I install the other light bulb and go from there, the setting on the thermostat should be left alone to the factory setting and it's usually at about 130 degrees. It takes a little playing around with the setting but just make minor adjustments till you get it right and minor means turning it so you can barely see the indicator move. Keep in mind that if you add an egg turner that the egg turner motor will also cause a little heat so I set mine up with the turner in it before I add eggs and also the cooler eggs will take a while to get up to temperature once you set them. I know I'm rambling but I'm just trying to give you enough info to get going.

Here's a pic of mine and let me know if you need more help

This is from a hatcher I just built to show how I rigged up the thermostat



Here's with the lights off so you can see it better

 

[Brookhavens]

I've made 2 incy's from an old fridge or freezer using the water heater thermostat and both work great and hold temps steady. I use 2 lights, 1 is a curly Q 25 watt that stays on constantly. The other is a 40 watt and that is controlled by the thermostat. The thermostat has the added holes in it and it's mounted to a strip of aluminum coil stock that I can bend easy for adjustment about 2 inches from the light. I also used some of the coil stock to make a sheild to block some of the radiant heat. Setting it up is guess work, I usually start with just the light that stays on constantly and let it come up to temperature, I've noticed that it will keep the temp at around 85 degrees. Then I install the other light bulb and go from there, the setting on the thermostat should be left alone to the factory setting and it's usually at about 130 degrees. It takes a little playing around with the setting but just make minor adjustments till you get it right and minor means turning it so you can barely see the indicator move. Keep in mind that if you add an egg turner that the egg turner motor will also cause a little heat so I set mine up with the turner in it before I add eggs and also the cooler eggs will take a while to get up to temperature once you set them. I know I'm rambling but I'm just trying to give you enough info to get going.

Here's a pic of mine and let me know if you need more help

This is from a hatcher I just built to show how I rigged up the thermostat



Here's with the lights off so you can see it better

What did you do to your hatcher to allow for air exchange without having to open the door?

 

[Cajun Chooks]

I already had a few holes drilled for the wires at the top so I just drilled a 1/4 inch hole at about halfway up the cooler. You don't need big holes, just enough to allow the hot air to rise and leave from the top and fresh air to come in from the lower hole. An ideal place for the bottom hole would be the lowest point but I put it up a little higher so the chicks wouldn't peck at it and it'll make cleaning the bottom easier. If you drill holes too big it will also effect the temperature and then you'll have to adjust the thermostat again and you'll have a cold spot around the hole.

 

[Paragrunt82]

Hello fowl friends! LOL

Just joined the site and was surfing through the incubator thread here. I'm also a retired master electrician who once did sub work for NASA and other defense contractors here on the space coast of Florida. The pic of the thermostat that Wildcat Chix posted above is the correct one you want. It is sometimes referred to as a "Lower Element" thermostat of a 2 (dual) element water heater. It simplifies wiring as it is a singe pole and has just 2 screws (Line in, Line out). This is great when adapting it to use in a 120 volt application. Being smaller than the upper thermostat it also makes it work more efficiently by it reacting much faster to temperature swings. It is quite simple thermophysics that larger objects take longer to warm up, but also take longer to cool off. The smaller lower thermostat (when placed closely to the heat source) will react more quickly thus keeping it's preselected temperature within a very narrow range as needed in incubator use.

Anyone know where I can find one of those fat/thick Styrofoam shipping coolers? Need a larger one as I want to put a 18" x 18" auto egg turner in the bottom. If I can't find one it may just end up being a Coleman instead and that's my fishin cooler, can't have that! LOL