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

[kellyn]

Hey... rgvchicks, you've given me an idea: people complain about how aquariums hold heat badly.. why not insulate the outside with styrafoam or another insulator? It'll also make it more stronger. For people like me, who shatter everything from phone screens to hindows to picture frames. Yeah, put insulation or something on 3 sides and the bottom and roof or on the bottom and four sides if u have a glass top.

I feel kinda sad for those who know me... I saw a busted up fridge the other day, and guess what thougt came to my mind? GIGANTICO INCUBATOR!!! I love building the things, but seriously...

An moetrout... I did se another built-in candler. It's on thi page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/homemade-chicken-egg-incubator-designs-pictures

You just gotta find it. that's what I forgot to mention earlier.


NEW RESOLVE: I shall fix me thermostat! Everyone whose had success, I blame you! Jk, inspiration is a typically good thing. Tomorrow, maybe I'll fix it then. Which is a little more than 10 minutes away...

 

[quintinp]

Oh, well, I said that your temps were nice, but if you want to consider possibly better temperatures, I recommend drilling holes according to this diagram that I made. I get very nice temps, never more than a degree difference. Temps in my cooler incubator sway from 99 to 100.

Here's the diagram.

 

[rgvchicks]

the diagram appears to be for this thermostat from ebay...
.

and i'm using this kind....



will it work if i drill those holes as shown in the diagram even if it's not the same design?

 

[rgvchicks]

Oh, well, I said that your temps were nice, but if you want to consider possibly better temperatures, I recommend drilling holes according to this diagram that I made. I get very nice temps, never more than a degree difference. Temps in my cooler incubator sway from 99 to 100.

Here's the diagram.

different thermostat designs...will it still work?

 

[mohillbilly]

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?

If by expert you mean cause I have been building them for the past 30 years and averaging 99% hatches....then yes I am. Well my advice is don't use light bulbs as your heat source they burn out and you don't notice them and your eggs get too cold..
.The incubators i just lost in the fire, I built 30 years ago and the only thing I ever had to replace was the wafer in the thermostats....
I have seen light bulbs explode when water dripped down on them from too much humidity and yea it destroyed the mans hatch...He came to me to put him a heating element in and take the lights out.

 

[cva34]

Could you post a picture of what yours looks like? My incubator is in use, but I only use the light to add xtra heat when it's under 70* out. It oucassionally gets too hot so I have to constantly monitor it.
I may use it on another 'experiment' incubator later on; I already have an idea of what to do~
I must have brain damage... every time I finish an incubator, I just HAVE to start on another one! Sometimes I swear I spend more time on that than I do tending my chickens! Yeah, I think I have some type of 'build another incubator' disorder...

If its a Disorder I got it too !!! ...cva34

 

[galanie]

Both those thermostats will work fine. Take a look at my page about that. https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=65925 I have a similar diagram to the wiring and pictures of my incubator, which works great. Also note that the thermostat should be close to the heat source with the BACK facing the heat. I'm talking only about the lower hot water heater thermostat.

Go to this page http://cmfarm.us/WHTincubator.html and scroll down to the video close to the bottom to see how to install the thermostat and why. This is a GREAT page. Done this way, a thermostat can be installed so that you get very little, if any, variation in temperatures rather than the classic "5-10 degrees difference" that these things are supposed to do because they've been installed wrong.

PS - If done this way, you don't have to drill any holes. I found the hole drilling ineffective anyway.

 

[moetrout]

Mohillbilly,

I have read your comments before about light bulbs burning out and losing the hatch. I am planning on using several small 15 watt bulbs. For two reasons, I have about a thousand of them and because if one burns out there will still be several others. I am now also thinking about have some that stay on and others that are controlled by thermostat. My thought is that the temp swing will be less drastic and I also wonder about the chicks being in a incubator where the lights are going on an off all the time, especially at night. It would be like being in a dark room at night with someone turning the lights on an off all night long. Anyway, thoughts or opionions on my plan for several small bulbs with some being left on 24/7?

 

[quintinp]

Well, the only thing I could think of is taking the thermostat apart, and finding where holes could be drilled.

I have taken my thermostat apart, and by no means when I did this was I very handy at the time, but I did it, and it is still the thermostat I use in my cooler incubator today.

If you don't wanna take the thermostat apart, you could use a somewhat HOT bulb. 75 watts. Place the backside of the thermostat (the metal side) facing the light bulb, located within 1 1/2 inches from the light bulb.

Make sure you have plenty of air circulation.

I have drilled holes into all of my thermostats. I bought my thermostats from Lowes though. If you don't drill holes into the thermostat, I am guessing your temperature would probably swing from 97 to 100 that being if you have a very sensitive thermometer reading.

I think that your incubator will be fine, or you could go to Lowes, or Home Depot, and buy a new thermostat, and return the one you have now.

 

[kkg]

I built my first egg incubator last year and had 2 hatches out of it and know have our third hatch at about day 8. I have modified it this year some what with a thermostat from incubatorwarehouse.com. I use 2 25 watt bulbs, heat sheilds made from coffee cans and a computer fan humidity is maintaned by a small dish with spounge replinished by a irrigation syringe. At lock down we switch to a larger dish and sponge to get the right humidity. Right know we have 28 eggs in it, could hold a few more. Maintain a temp of 99.5 to 99.7 and a humidity of 34% to 45%. Also built a quick back up incubator from a styrafoam cooler similiar design but with a modified water heater thermostat. (drilled out and 1 to 2 inches from heat source). Pictures attached. Lots of fun building them. Getting ready to build a larger one, have one more thermostat to try out the old school wafer thermostat. Have fun!!! Sorry for pics everywhere.