Homemade Incubators

[Jessshan8]

It is very easy and you have alot of poeple here on BYC that will help in anyway we can.

 

[mpcardona]

Thanks for the help guys!!

 

[mohillbilly]

Very easy... if you have questions we can help.

It is very easy and you have alot of poeple here on BYC that will help in anyway we can.

Any pics of this installed.....what are it's dimensions ....how accurate is it

 

[Jessshan8]

Any pics of this installed.....what are it's dimensions ....how accurate is it

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/603873/homemade-incubators/20

Here is the link to a previous post in this thread of my incubator. I have it mounted into a wooden cigar box that I painted and fixed to the top of my incubator. it has a temp probe that extends into the incubator. The deminsions are 3X3X1.25 . The accuracy of mine was about a degree and a half from a calibrated thermometer but it has a tempature correction so you can set it to be right on the money and will regulate the temp within .3 deg F. It connects very similarly to the wat you wire up a HWT, very easy!

 

[mossypath]

I have made 2 and the one I am having the best luck with is with a repti temp 500R thermostat.
It was not real cheap but It could not be any easier. You only have to wire your light to a plug and the sensor will turn on and off




your heat
.




It has been working pretty well for me. I had a spot in the front that was running a bit cooler so this time I have put in a small night light to run all the time to just add a little extra heat and give me a little more time if my light where to blow.

 

[Builderofempire]

A pic of our homemade incubator. We hatched 12 of 13 eggs pretty good I think for our first hatch. The temp held at 100 degrees. We kept the humidity at 60 percent until hatch day. Now we have 32 eggs inside three of which are turkey eggs. We candled our eggs everyday almost until hatch. Our first hatch is now a week old and doing great. So far all of the 32 eggs are doing great. We done so good I think the next homemade incubator ill make out of an old fridge. We spent a grand total of 29 bucks to make our first incubator.

 

[Bitterroot]

I'm wondering if this incubator I made for my reptile eggs would work for chickens. If so, I'll start making one for them, with the same materials.

It's a large cooler, with a strip of what is essentially flexwatt in the bottom. I use a top of the line Herpstat thermostat to control temps, and in my 80 degree snake room I have less than a half degree temp fluctuation once it reaches the temp I set it to. The pictures are of my initial build, and don't include the filled water bottles I set in the bottom for thermal mass, or the computer fan that circulates air.





I could easily sandwich two layers of plexi in the top to keep it insulated but still be able to see in, and I'm sure I could find an auto egg turner somewhere that would fit down into it, couldn't I? A shallow pan of water down in the bottom would be the easiest way to provide humidity, correct? (I put reptile eggs in their own individual tubs that hold humidity, inside the cooler) I could run a tube to it, from the outside of the cooler via the same place I have all the other cords run, so that I could add more water via syringe without opening the cooler, and adjust the humidity up if need be.

I have the materials on hand, so all it will cost me is the $50 for a new cooler.

What do you guys think? Would it work?

 

[Phoenixxx]

I'm loving all the creative ideas I'm seeing here, but has anyone tried just setting a bulb in a heatlamp over an old aquarium before? I read on another thread of someone doing this (with success) and I'm wondering if anyone knows at what height above the eggs I should suspend my lamp. I'm hoping to find the height at which the temperature will remain spot-on without me having to ever turn it off or hook up a thermostat (which I don't think I have - unless I steal one from one off a wall). My chickens are laying more than I can eat right now so I figure, what the hell, why not try hatching some!

 

[Phoenixxx]

Well, I seem to have done it. I started with a 40 watt bulb, it didn't get hot enough; then I tried 100 watt bulb, again, still not hot enough; finally, I put the red bulb back in, but it got TOO hot! I raised the lamp a few inches with a book and the temperature seems to be holding a steady 100 degrees F now (at the eggs) so now I wait and see...

 

[pbunny]

what wouldi need to mak the refrig incubator please let me know thanks