Homemade incubator vs market incubators?

[DezyJuarez]

OK so I purchased an LG 9300 still air incubator for about $50. I must say I followed the instructions for the unit threw some eggs in to see what happens. I am on day 22. Just heard a peep. However my eggs look to be behind due to low temp. Again this is the first use of this incubator and my first hatch provided any hatch. However I am thinking for $50 I could have custom made one and had a better result. Are you using a home made baton or a purchased one? If I purchase another in the future it will not be these over priced styrofoam boxes. After all to be honest, the $50 I spent could have cover the costs of making one and 12 fertile eggs plus an A+ for a science project for my 12 year old son. And we most likely would have had at least 10 chicks! What are you using and why?

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, DezyJuarez, and

! Pleased you joined our flock! I don't have much experience with incubation so I can't offer much advice. I see you've already discovered the Incubating & Hatching Forum - they would be the folks to ask. Here are some old threads that discuss homemade vs. purchased incubators if you'd like to research them.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=homemade+vs+incubator
Best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!!

 

[CuzChickens]

Hello, and welcome to BYC! I am quite glad you joined us, please make yourself at home, I think you are going to like it here!

~Cuz

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under DezyJuarez

Welcome!

Sorry, no incubation experience here either, just hatches under a broody hen.

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. I am sure that the link given by redsoxs will help you out.

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[N F C]

No incubation experience here either but lots of other members do so I'm sure the links you've been given will be helpful.

Best of luck to you!

 

[wynn4578]

I built my cabinet incubator after I got tired of fighting with my styrofoam incubators. In the styro incubators the outside temp always greatly affected the temp in the incubator. My homemade incubator has no trouble regulating its own temp. Now it sits in a shed hatching away and I never have to worry about it. I do still need to add an automatic humidity system to it though. I would assume (though I've never used one) that the higher end manufactured incubators propably do quite well. I built my incubator out of scrap I had laying around so my cost was quite low. You can get a temp controller from amazon for about 5 bucks. Attach it to a solid state relay and attach that to a light bulb. Then add a computer fan. Cut out a hole and add a closable vent register to a styrofoam box and you could probably get away with building one for about 50 bucks with everything except auto humidity. If you wanted to add auto humidity. Buy a temp humidity combo controller from amazon for about 15 bucks and get a mini fogger (probably another 5 or 10 bucks) hook all that up and you have an incubator with all the bells and whistles for about 65 bucks. If your styrofoam incubator came with a turner you could throw that down in the bottom and you have a complete package. You should check out some of the diy incubators on here. They range from super simple all the way up to fully computer controlled hatching machines with more features than most people's cars. Lol.