Homemade incubator help.

[mrbstephens]

Maybe it's because the light is on the lid. You should have foil in front of the light so there's no direct heat coming off it onto one spot. The idea is to keep the heat flowing evenly throughout the whole bator and to avoid hot spots. Did you look at the learning center on this sight for incubator building ideas?

 

[chickintexas]

I've got that same thermometer from Home Depot. After running tests all week long, I've come to trust it more that the $25 thermometer/hygrometer I purchased from the pet store

The digital ones I've tried out show temps that swing way too much. They are going to pick up on the temperature changes much faster than the liquid thermometer. In my crazy obsessive curiosity, I even placed a calibrated meat thermometer inside of a real store bought egg and hot glued it on. Even though my incubator has temp swings, the internal egg temp stays right at 99. I'm waiting on a PC fan to get to me in the mail so I can get those temp swings down. If I get my eggs before the PC fan comes in, I'm just not going to worry about those swings. The light comes on/turns off every 10 minutes so I feel it balances everything out. Yes, I even timed the swings.

 

[Valeriemichelle]

I was thinking that.

See, the only reason I ended up putting the light on the top was because I didn't have any hardware cloth to put around it to protect the chicks from getting burnt on it.
If I put the light on the side, is there anything besides the hardware cloth that I can use?

Or do you think I would be able to hang some foil below the light and keep what I have?

 

[chickintexas]

I've got mine set in the top as well. Let me load my pics to show you how I have it set up. I used hardware cloth to circle around the light and used mason jars lids so there wasn't direct light on the eggs.

 

[Valeriemichelle]

Quote:
Okay. Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

 

[chickintexas]

Here you go. I used a smaller mason jar lid inserted into the lid of the cooler so I wouldn't have to worry about the heat from the light melting the cooler.

 

[Valeriemichelle]

Thank you so much.

Thats a GREAT idea.

I'm going to go do that right now!

 

[chickintexas]

Quote:
I'm glad that helps you.

The big mason jar lid fits perfectly into the hardware cloth tube. No need to glue it in at all and I'm not worried about it falling off and onto the eggs. On the part of the hardware cloth tube that is attached to the lid of the incubator, I cut off the horizontal wire, leaving the vertical wires as long as possible to I can push it into the Styrofoam lid. I will be gluing that part in since it does work it's way out after a bit. I'll still be able to remove the big mason jar lid so I can change the bulb if I need to.

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
Hey, That's really cool! Isn't it amazing what we come up with in order to hatch these little buggers?