Homemade incubator, or store bought? What do you think?

[Anarchy82]

I am sure at some time there is a thread like this, most likely called something else since I wasnt able to find it quick skimming over the topics. But I want to get people's opinion. What do you think is better? If you think homemade, and you have your own homemade. Post a picture of it, lets see what you have going on.

This is one of my two I made. (Other ones is set up the same way)

 

[rebel yell]

heres mine.

 

[Anarchy82]

Quote:
Thats really cool. I am guessing the soda bottle is for the humidity?
And at the top is your heat, thermostat, and fan?

 

[rebel yell]

Quote:
Thats really cool. I am guessing the soda bottle is for the humidity?
And at the top is your heat, thermostat, and fan?

Yea, I try to keep a bottle of water in there so it will stay the same temp. when I add water to the tray, I use a lunchable tray, (you know its what you buy your kids & has like ham chese & crackers in it, it has 3 or 4 diferent size compartments) I put it under my rack & it works great. & yes the fan, thermostat, & light is in the top.

 

[TeePants]

I like my homeade one but I think my biggest problem with it is that it's very small, and the lightbulb takes up a lot more space than an actual heating element would!

I think if this hatch goes badly (we'll know in about a week) that I'm going to just bite the bullet and invest in a LG with an egg turner/quail rails and fan kit.

I wanted a brinsea but they start at around $140 with an eggturner from what I can tell? Do they even fit bantam/quail size eggs or do you need a special tray?

 

[ChIck3n]

I'd say homemade if you are skilled enough to make one, and bought if you are not. Homemade is cheaper, and you know what to fix if something goes wrong. However, not everyone wants to or is able to wire up a heat regulator and make a reliable timed turner (or turn eggs by hand). But there are great store bought incubators out there, and you can sometimes find them used at great prices.

I have 2 incubators at home (sorry, no pictures). One is a homemade (not by me) cabinet incubator that is so well built I can barely tell it apart from a GQF sportsman. The other one is a Humidaire Model 50.

So ya, if you can make it work homemades are great. The one thing that may be hard to do is a turning mechanism, but if you don't mind doing it by hand this isn't a problem. I love my automatic turners too much to ever go back to manual though

As far as price goes, keep your eyes open and talk to people. I didn't have to pay a dime for either of my incubators.

 

[wowmanacat]

I had my Husband build me one back in March. I don't have any pictures on this site but you can see it at my blog here http://myersminimayhams.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-though-i-would-put-up-some-pictures.html. I was able to get 3 batch out of it. I plan on doing more this next spring. Right now I have a hen on two eggs to see what she will do. All my roosters are to young to do anything so I had to get the eggs from a friend.