Homemade incubator, not working :( Please help

[Smurfypop]

Hello Everyone

With great intentions I made my own incubator for my duck eggs. It was my first time incubating at all.
Well today I found that...it failed miserably. I was just keeping eggs warm really.
The temperature was varying about 1 - 2 degrees give or take, the humidity.....admittedly I was guessing.

Questions;

Could it be my drake?
Is humidity very important to keep constant?
How do I keep a more constant temperature?
Is it better to have a fan in the incubator or does it matter?

Thank you so much,
Sophia

~Ciao for now~

 

[tyler01]

I just did my very first hatch with a homemade incubator for chickens, and I have a 2nd homemade incubator with more eggs to come soon. Through the course of this I've had 2 rotten eggs and 4 infertile eggs. The infertile eggs looked like I was just keeping them warm when I examined them. Are you certain that the eggs were fertile?

My temp was all over the place many times, and my humidity was too, but I guess it was steady enough for these healthy little chicks to hatch. You should go to target or walmart and buy a 5 dollar hygrometer that measures humidity. As far as ventilation goes, I placed a hole in my cooler directly below my heat source which was a light bulb. The light bulb was mid-way up on the styrofoam chest wall. Then I put a bigger vent hole on the opposite side of the chest on the top. This created convection and surprisingly was pulling a good deal of air through the incubator. It certainly wasn't like a fan, but it was much more than I expected.

Hope this helps for the future!

 

[Smurfypop]

Thank you sooo much for your reply.

I have taken your advice and got a hydrometer and made adjustments to my incubator.
I wasn't entirely sure if the eggs were fertilized. It's hard to tell for me. I am very new to this.
Your post has helped me out so much. I hope it works this time.
Thank you again,
Sophia.