Has anyone had good experience with homemade incubators?
I am talking about old coolers with water pans and wire racks and light bulbs for heat and an accurate thermometer.
I have chicken fever. My small flock of three girls is not enough. I have six chicks(EEs and Wellsumers) being shipped at the end of April, but that is not soon enough. I only plan on keeping one each of the six, the others will either be sold to pay for the exhorbitant shipping costs, or will be donated to my friend's egg co-op. I would also like a Marans, but could not get them from the hatchery.
I was thinking of ordering a half dozen Black Copper Marans eggs to incubate and hatch. I think that would be a good experience for my daughters, and frankly, it gives me a new project to keep my occupied. Again, I would only keep one of the Marans, either selling or donating the rest.
But I am on a budget, having already spent all my tax refund money, most of which went to take down an enormous dead tree perilously close to power lines. I can't afford to buy an incubator at the moment.
I know I could easily put together a decent homemade incubator from parts I already have laying around. But this is not a project I would undertake lightly, not with living things. If I can't do it right, then I wont do it at all.
I used to keep reptiles, so monitoring humidity and temperature are pretty easy for me.
Do any of you have any thoughts? Are homemade incubators reliable? Is the success rate any different than with other incubators?
Thank you in advance all of you for your advice.
I am talking about old coolers with water pans and wire racks and light bulbs for heat and an accurate thermometer.
I have chicken fever. My small flock of three girls is not enough. I have six chicks(EEs and Wellsumers) being shipped at the end of April, but that is not soon enough. I only plan on keeping one each of the six, the others will either be sold to pay for the exhorbitant shipping costs, or will be donated to my friend's egg co-op. I would also like a Marans, but could not get them from the hatchery.
I was thinking of ordering a half dozen Black Copper Marans eggs to incubate and hatch. I think that would be a good experience for my daughters, and frankly, it gives me a new project to keep my occupied. Again, I would only keep one of the Marans, either selling or donating the rest.
But I am on a budget, having already spent all my tax refund money, most of which went to take down an enormous dead tree perilously close to power lines. I can't afford to buy an incubator at the moment.
I know I could easily put together a decent homemade incubator from parts I already have laying around. But this is not a project I would undertake lightly, not with living things. If I can't do it right, then I wont do it at all.
I used to keep reptiles, so monitoring humidity and temperature are pretty easy for me.
Do any of you have any thoughts? Are homemade incubators reliable? Is the success rate any different than with other incubators?
Thank you in advance all of you for your advice.
