incubator ideas! post your ideas for home made incubators, whether they work or not~

[moetrout]

This is my pile-o-stuff that will soon become my incubator. I really like wattsjadajoe's full view lid. Joe, how do you like it? Does the lid get flimsy at all? If not I will try to make mine as big as I can with the plexiglass I have. I had another idea. How about a built on candler? Has anyone done it? I've never candled an egg in my life. If I attached one to my incubator should it be mounted inside or outside? I would probably use another one of those small 15 watt twist socket lights mounted inside a piece of pvc with a switch and then attach the whole thing to the side of the coolerbator. Waddaya think?

 

[mohillbilly]

i looked over you incubator pic ....it may work but probably won't give you a good hatch as it doesn't seal or have any insulation so your temp will fluctuate too much.

 

[Cpntherfan]

here is mine and so far its holding good with the maiden batch. Change im gonna make is run my wires outside of the cooler and add a extra light on a dimmer for a back up.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ga...72947/user_id/84912#page=0&sort=display_order

 

[spacepony]

Does anyone have any ideas for an automatic turner? I can see setting 'something' up with perhaps a cheep (pun intended) timer, but I have no idea how to gear a 'something' that might turn an egg holder the required 1/4 or 1/2 turn.

 

[quintinp]

I think that a small replacement motor for the little giant egg turner (found on ebay) would work fine. I doubt it would be hard to do either.

That is if you have already made a PVC egg turner, or something like it.

 

[rgvchicks]

hello everyone...i know i'm a newbie here but i just want to add my little opinion regarding the water heater thermostat. you see, i have to homemade incubators and was running both with light dimmers to regulate the temp. one was a coleman cooler and the other one (as you can see in my profile pic) was an aquarium....the cooler is in lockdown right now and has 2 more days to go for hatching i'm running that on lighjt dimmer and have a temp of 37.5 - 38.3 celcius whiuch is pretty good i beleive is 99.5-101 you can check the pics on the cooler with light dimmer.





the second bator was the aquarium which brought me 20 chicks out of 29 (9 being unfertiled) also running on light dimmer....i upgraded it to a cooler and got rid of the aquarium (temp went down fast because glass would not hold temp in) and also added the water heater thermostat which is working perfect, light goes on at 98 and turns off at 101...you can check the pics also....this eggs i set them on the 23rd.









So i guess the water heater thermostat does work in the cooler incubator......

 

[quintinp]

Rgvchicks, did you drill holes into the thermostat? Just wondering, your temperature sounds really nice.

By the way, I like both of you incubators.

I wish you luck with your future hatches in you cooler incubators.

 

[quintinp]

This is my pile-o-stuff that will soon become my incubator. I really like wattsjadajoe's full view lid. Joe, how do you like it? Does the lid get flimsy at all? If not I will try to make mine as big as I can with the plexiglass I have. I had another idea. How about a built on candler? Has anyone done it? I've never candled an egg in my life. If I attached one to my incubator should it be mounted inside or outside? I would probably use another one of those small 15 watt twist socket lights mounted inside a piece of pvc with a switch and then attach the whole thing to the side of the coolerbator. Waddaya think?

Hey Moetrout, I have the exact same type of cooler. I like the handles on the side, but I don't like that the hinges have given out on me.

 

[kellyn]

http://www.stormthecastle.com/how-to-make-a/guest-incubator.htm

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_plywood_incubator.html

http://www.utm.edu/departments/cece/idea/incu.shtml

These are great links for incubator ideas, ESPECIALLY MSUCARES!!! There's sooo much great information about chickens and such on there, including diseases and parasites, including the nasty, vile, devil-prasitic worm in Florida called Gape Worm.

And I got ideas for my incubators from these. Loved the ideas so much, that when I learn how to use a power saw or whatever it's called, I'm gonna make the one on Msucares! I actually made a drawing of it. A dang good, legible one~

Oh, and i had a chickie hatch! It's soooooooooo cuuuute!!! It's an americaunaXbuff cochin! It's got all the great features from both breeds and it is a yellow and white colour! It's actually in great health for an upside-down hatcher that required help and chewedmy our the whole way.

And on the incubators:

Moetrout: good luck with it! It's beter insulated than all my incubators. I don't. Worry too much about insulation, as long as I have a great heat-source in my incubators. Whiiich, I had to add foam tape to insulate mine because it was too cool. Now, I can't get the darn thing to cool down enough, lol! I have to put a bunch of water in it, and have found out where it DID stay nice and accurate at. It maintains humidity well, so it's my hatcher. I believe I have a picture of it. It's successfully hatched 2 chicks, 2 coturnix quail chicks, and 10 button quail. They were all test eggs and rejects from other things. I'm surprised my quail actually hatched, since my quail had just started laying. Also: I have a cooler lust like yours but red. I use it as a water bucket because I have no room for something I can't stack or put stuff on. And as for a candler, go buy a smaaall LED flashlight that'll fit snugly over the top of your eggs. A flashlight also works, but it's harder to see through dark-shelled eggs(which are daggun near impossible anyways).

And the other person on the previous page who made a nice 'bator: lookin' good! I hope you get at least a 50%! And when I say that; it's highly likely I'm right because I'm rarely wrong on intuition. Unless it's with my eggs because I JINX myself and have a bad batch. My VTD was rather pathetic.

Mohillbilly: you're an expert from what I've read from what you posted on, what was it, the "warning: don't buy from custom incubators" forum. Do you have any tips for us newbies and rookies?

Rgvchicks: wow just wow. I LOVE YOUR INCUBATOR!!! That's a total 10! Best I've seen yet; you've used your space well! I'm so glad you posted these pictures!

I was gonna say something else... but I kiinda, sorta... forgot... oh wait! Just remembered: I gotsta go look at the links posted... that aren't mine, coz I seem to be posting more links than anything..

 

[rgvchicks]

Rgvchicks, did you drill holes into the thermostat? Just wondering, your temperature sounds really nice.

By the way, I like both of you incubators.

I wish you luck with your future hatches in you cooler incubators.

just one hole so i could screw the thermostat to the cooler.....wanted to drill a couple but i decided not to afraid i would damage the thermostat so i decided to leave it that way.