Homemade Aquarium Incubator? Would it Work?

[bufforp89]

So this is prolly not true but someone told me that you can make an incubator by putting an aquarium on its side and making a door for it out of heavy plastic that you can retape when you open/close it. For heat they told me to use a heat lamp in the corner of the tank facing the corner so it dosnt fry the eggs and play around with lightbulb watts until you find one that heats the tank around 99-100 degrees. Add a shallow dish of water in the other corner by the heat lamp and thats about it.

Anyone think that this would really work?

The person who told me about it currently uses a small tabletop BBQ grill with a hot plate in the bottom that works great. They found instructions on the internet for that somewhere. They just put a glass of water in it for humidity and their grill is making chicks instead of cookin em.

 

[walkswithdog]

Can be done. Yep. Ventilation and getting the wattage right are the keys. Temperature has to stay right and the humidity has to be right at hatch or they die in shell but yeah lots of folks make homemade bators out of all sorts of things.

Coolers, grills, breadboxes, cardboard boxes, mini-fridge and full sized refridgerators, aquariums, wine coolers, tons of stuff.

What matters is consistent temps in the right range and proper humidity for your region and then yes you can hatch chicks.

 

[vkp23]

I don't see why not. I have made a bator some would not think works but it's working great for me. Check the DARTHBATOR thread. At the bottom is a pic of my "Poor mans incubator".

 

[Sappy]

Rather than having to fiddle fart around with different wattage light bulbs, I'd just get a dimmer and rig that up with a couple lower wattage light bulbs if it were me. I would use a few lower wattage bulbs rather than one big one to distribute the heat more evenly, and for some insurance in case one dies on your... temps would go down, but not as much.

 

[saddina]

There's photos of one in the homemade incubator thread sticky. That's what we tried first, but there wasn't a good way to even out humidity in the desert.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=19549

 

[bufforp89]

Yea I saw that one last night. I am planning on making an incubator soon. Thanks for everyones help!

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Sappy is correct, dimmers make adjustments super easy, I love them. If you have the 8-11$ for one and a little patience for wiring (and you should you're building a bator - good for you) then it's worth it.

I use them on my brooder lights so I don't have to fiddle with moving the darn thing, just turn it down.