Incubating in an Aquarium??

[my sunwolf]

So my mom grew up in Florida. When I told her that I wanted an incubator so I could start hatching batches of eggs, she got silent. Then she said, "When I was a kid we would just put the eggs in an aquarium with a 60watt light on them and turn them twice a day and ours always used to hatch."

Now, granted, they were probably doing hatches in mid springtime in mid Florida... so, think about 80˚F-90˚F during the day and 50-60˚F at night. Of course, in the house, was probably close to 80˚F during the day and 60˚F at night. With the little lamp on days and nights, it probably was pretty warm and humid in an aquarium.

I am just extremely confused as I thought there had to be very specific conditions for hatching eggs. Did my mom and her siblings just get lucky that the weather was good for hatching eggs? Is this something anyone has tried with any success?

I'd really love to know before I go out and spend $200 on an incubator...

 

[outdoorpodcast]

I've heard stories of people hatching eggs using the heat from the woodstove. Possible yes, however you will get better results from an incubator. Might be the difference in getting 0-30% hatch in aquarium versus 40-85% with incubator.

 

[Quyen Le]

I got 70%+ hatched in my home made styrofoam incubator with 40W light bulb. I remember temperature was from 95-110.