Homemade Incubator; hope it works!

[The Gotfeather]

Hi Cherlyn, I am stunned!

It has probably taken me over 20 mins just to gather the bits and pieces for my incubator. I had to dig the old esky out of the shed, disconnect the thermostat from the old hot water cylinder and get the fan out of the dead pc.

Yet you whip one up in 20 mins! Wow!

Just checking so that I understand what I can see from your second pic. You have a flourescent light, hygrometer in the right hand corner and is that black thing on the wall a thermometer?

thanks Dalles.

 

[mulia24]

@ Emilys3guppies : actually I build my incubator with heat provided from electricity from 3 pcs of 15 watts lamp you can't see the lamp cause it's dark inside that incubator and took the photos using old camera phone, but when the power outrages happen (as you see in picture), I light kerosene lamp and put it into my incubator with almost half window opened in order to get that poisonous gas from kerosene to get out. that's why I'm afraid my eggs didn't hatch because the power failure always happen everyday.
nope, my hen is laying egg in random place, most in soil although I've build nestbox for her, but I still didn't have big enough coop to hold my hen, cause if I use small cage, she didn't want to laying that's why I leave her outside with other. my hen only producing 3 eggs in 10 days, how could I expect her laying. so I did my decision to make an incubator and incubate 3 of those eggs and buy 6 duck eggs (in picture only 5 cause I "break" one for fertility test) to incubate together. by the way thank you for understanding my lack of skill in english.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
I have been thinking about this problem and have decided to invest in a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) for my 'bators. That is way more power than they need, but it certainly should help with brief outages of several hours at a time. For longer ones such as those were the power is off for days or weeks at a time we are going to set up a generator we picked up at an auction to power our home.

That is a cool setup you have with those lamps.

 

[mulia24]

@ buster52 : in my country, an UPS that could solve that problem is about US$ 200 , an generator is about US$ 100, and that's US$100 and US$200 worth so high in my country, just to compare : a cashier in an university Indonesia is paid US$200, a salesman in a beverage company is paid US$120, I do believe in USA or other country in Europe they're paid higher. with that comparation, you can see that an UPS or a generator cost so high in my country. in the first time I also think of using this, but after calculate the cost I clean up those thinking. but after all thank you very much for giving advise.

 

[jsvand5]

What about using a car battery and getting a cheap DC/AC converter. I don't know about where you live but in the US cheap ones can be found for $10-$20. I would guess a car battery would last quite a long time without having to be recharged.

 

[mulia24]

@ jsvand5 : yap, I've asked it 3 days ago, it called inverter, it cost more than US$ 98 for 500 watt inverter and they didn't sell lower wattage. I've search for more than dozen shop and I got the same answer, but I will keep trying to find it since I have a 12 volt car battery I didn't use anymore. I also trying to find bulb that run on 12 volt battery and i found it but when I use it in my bator, even I used 3 bulbs and it took power so rapidly, it can't fulfill the temp needed. thank you for your advice, any help is very appreciated.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
You're welcome, but it really wasn't advice. Just sharing how I personally plan to handle the power outage issue in case someone might find it useful.

 

[Alex Kwong]

Hello Mulia,

Which part of Indonesia you are staying? I'm in Batam Island and stay in Indonesia since 1991.
Here is some info may help.
In my area usually power out at night after 11pm for 1-2 hrs sometime 3 hours+. Last 5 weeks got 5 times.
I did use a old computer UPS (model 650V), got two styrofoam incubators connected with it (capacity 30 eggs each). Each of them had one 25W lamp and two 12V fan. When PLN power outage, the most it can run is around 1.2 ~ 1.5 hour. When running only 1 incubator, it can over 2 hours.

A small made in China generator is selling Rp700,000 (~US$72) here. I got one in the farm for workers watching TV (19"), charge their HP and some lights at night. Its 40 minute drive from my home. The spec said don't run it more than 6 hours. But I told them not more then 4 hours. Coz I already repaired twice when first month bought it. Now already 5 months w/o problem, Coz I control the gasoline for everyweek only supply 11L (Rp50,000). Its good for 4 hours everyday.

If you or your families want to watching TV during power outage. You may consider the small generator. It will not cost you so much for a few hours

If not, you may keep using the kerosene lamp. But you may consider use a biggest kerosene lamp and put it outside of the incubator. See below PIC, make two hole on the incubator and run a thin metal pipe across the box. hook the kerosene lamp at one side of the pipe and the hot air out from the other side. I did saw a local made wooden incubator with such kerosene lamp back up on it in pet shop. The capacity is for 50 eggs.

BTW, if your incubator had a top glass window. when power out, cover it with newspapers or blanket asap. So the temp. would not drop so fast.

B.Rgds,
Alex

 

[Cherlyn]

Quote:
You bet I will! And I am just using an 11-watt bulb - temp has held at 99-100 all day.

~Cherlyn

 

[Cherlyn]

Quote:
Yep, I have the light, the hygrometer is the black thing on the wall, and the thermometer is a mercury one leaned against the corner.

~Cherlyn