Ok I made a homemade incubator and egg turner a few months ago. Works great, hatched maybe close to 200 chicks but there are things that are inconvenient that I want to fix so I need your help on a couple of things. I am a visual learner so PICTURES, lots of pics the more detail the better. 1) This should be easy, I want to add a 3 or 5 gal water bucket to refill the water for humidity from the outside. I think I need a clamp to stop the water to refill the bucket. But I just can't visualize how that will work in detail with hoses. So if anyone has this PLEASE post pics and descriptions. 2) The egg turner..... here is what we did last time https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=92428-homemade-incubatoregg-turner My son wants to make the better this time. I need to still use the rotisserie. It really is the gears he wants to do better with. Most of the egg turners I have seen just don't show how the gears, pulleys and and stuff really work and how they are connected to a motor. We are going to work in revers this time. Build the turner and then build the cabinet to work better with the turner. Other changes we are going to make are removable trays and we are going to use Flexwatt as the heat source. So if you have tips for any of that too I will take it Thanks!
I recommend changing the thermostat to a different kind, because you are wanting to use the flex watt. The reason I like the light bulbs though is because when they come on, you can see every thing that's going on in the incubator. I like your incubator now though.
Quote:OK I am new to flexwatt but they sell thermostats like that to go with them. That thermostat just cuts the electricity do I need one that regulates it better? I may add a light with a switch for viewing CFL to cut energy usage. I like it to, but it is hard to get the water refilled and get to the eggs
I would recommend using a wafer thermostat, they are used a lot in many homemade incubators. You could also use the incubator warehouse thermostat. It is digital and Very nice. If you can find them they have a few videos of it in action I think. I am pretty sure that they are really good thermostats.
the water situation is easy - I used a copper tube long enough to reach each water container. Drill a hole the same diameter as your tubing (i used 1/2 inch) pass the tube into the incubator. On the outside of the box I used a 90 degree elbow and a short nipple pointing up. This allows me to pour the water in from the outside. I'll look around for any pictures.
I'm wanting to do something similar to what you're describing for water ... the picture i have in my head is a small reservoir inside the bator that has a float valve from a toilet tank... and that would be connected to a 5 gallon bucket of water on top of the bator... this way the internal reservoir would be self filling as it evaporated
Quote:you can do a self filling thing if you make it just like a chicken drinker. run some tubing from your tank, jug or whatever into the bator and put it with the opening down into a cup. when the water evaporates enough for the tube to take in some air a glug of air will go up and water will come down . easy peasy. the only details that will be fussy is that your tube will have to go "uphill" the whole way, or you might get an air lock in the tube, and the tank will have to be sealed so no air can get in except through the tube. If you have a large incubator you could just put a chick drinker right in there! Jerry
Quote:you can do a self filling thing if you make it just like a chicken drinker. run some tubing from your tank, jug or whatever into the bator and put it with the opening down into a cup. when the water evaporates enough for the tube to take in some air a glug of air will go up and water will come down . easy peasy. the only details that will be fussy is that your tube will have to go "uphill" the whole way, or you might get an air lock in the tube, and the tank will have to be sealed so no air can get in except through the tube. If you have a large incubator you could just put a chick drinker right in there! Jerry OK let me get this straight in my head. If I have a bucket with a TOP to seal it, and a tube at the bottom running into say a pan in the incubator, once the water gets below the level of the tube it would fill the pan right? That is what a wanted to know. I didn't know if that would work. I would need to add a clamp to the tube so I could fill the bucket, because all the water would run out if I break that seal right?
Quote:Right now in my hatcher I have an old garden hose going through the hatcher via a holes and into my water "tanks" lol I use a funnel to fill those from the outside. What I really want is something I don't have to fill very often. Weekly is ok or monthly would be even better. Right now I have to fill the hatcher ever two days and the incubator almost every day. I do like the idea of pipe... I was really thinking tubing or hose. Thanks
