Incubating with a slow cooker...

[MommyMagpie]

Home from outside job, even with lid propped open it was 140 degrees in there so I think we can safely say that an unmodified slow cooker is, indeed, too hot to incubate eggs. Hey, you never know until you try!

 

[Moonkit]

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Indeed.. as someone suggested.. have any electronics students nearby?

 

[Jloeffler]

Edwards' East of Eden :

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Oh, honey. You're here. We all just assumed you were addicted to chickens.

Hey, I resemble that comment!​

 

[MommyMagpie]

No electronics students close by, sadly. So I think we will go with tried-and-true and make a bator from a cooler....I have the page bookmarked so I will copy the materials list for my kids and let them scrounge up the supplies. I think we have everything but a thermostat and hygrometer.

On second thought, here I sit in my living room and I have a little craft cabinet on legs that is serving no purpose except to catch dust (lid is broken). It will make an excellent starting point for a homemade bator.

I really never should have started reading the threads in this part of BYC. To think that 2 years ago I only reluctantly accepted 2 laying hens because they came with a coop and supplies. The peeps are just so cute, though!

 

[zzGypsy]

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but a slow cooker is designed to work with fluid in contact with the crock... don't know what the air temp inside would be... hmmm.
and different cookers of different watts have different temps.
you'd need to put them on a rack to keep them from making direct contact with the crock and creating a hot-spot.

so, with a wood or plastic rack, and a thermometer, you could find out if your cooker would work! sounds like an experiment to me!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I was thinking of using a slow cooker to keep drinking water from freezing in the winter.

 

[Cattitude]

Good idea!! May I appropriate it for my own use?

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

My first DIY incubator had a frying pan thermostat wired to a bulb socket. It worked very well, got 3 hatches using it, with a 80% hatch rate.

 

[CapricornFarm]

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Sure,have at it. Just need to check temp. to be sure they don't burn chicky mouths.

 

[wolftracks]

There was a company decades ago who hatched chicks in they're electric frypans. Who was that?

Anyway there are places online where you can see it done.

Someone on here did it a year or 2 ago.