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

[BigRedRoo]

with the fan blowing over the element it should dissipate the heat and not glow red hot.

my thoughts on the heating element at the top is it heats indirectly and allows the moving air to be what warms the incubator, just above the element (especially if you have inadequate air flow) will be a hot spot when it's on which could cook eggs if it were placed at the bottom.

I understand what your saying, maybe a tin plate 6" over the element to allow the heat to be dispersed via air flow. How to mount the heating element? was thinking maybe coil it like a stove element or run it in an oval shape but how do I mount it so its not sitting on the bottom of the fridge.

 

[JetCat]

use ceramic insulators.

 

[BigRedRoo]

ok and how do you mount the eating element to it?

 

[JetCat]

ok and how do you mount the eating element to it?

the two ends you usually use clamps, if you don't have those you can use safety wire to secure them, the other insulators you weave it around them and the tension holds it in place.

 

[BigRedRoo]

Great pic thanks for that. Ive been plying around with some ideas while waiting for a response, The heating element I have will heat up to a max of 190F with no air flow, as soon as I turn the fan on the temp on the element drops drastically to 85F I'm also thinking that with the ambient temp at 69F this will probably come up once the door is back on. Any thoughts on recycling old nob and tube insulators or ceramic light fixtures instead of buying anything. my goal with this incubator is to spend $0. So far so good, Ive been told I tend to be a bit of hoarder but I don't believe this to be true, I dint keep garbage, Everything is shelved to I can identify and find by quick glance and save only stuff that's not truly garbage. Sometimes I even pull stuff apart to keep the good stuff and get rid of the garbage so as to not clutter to much.

 

[JetCat]

to me time is worth money and i just picked up 12 ceramic light fixtures at Lowes for $1.47 each, can't really beat that in time savings of cleaning up and disinfecting old ones.



Edit: here's the link

http://www.lowes.com/pd_71140-334-604-SP-L_0__?productId=3143461&Ntt=

 

[alpacathom]

I have a refridge about 5' tall 2' deep it has 6 shelves with a manual tilt of about 45 degrees. I am looking for ideas for heat and humidity control. Would appreciate any information I can get

 

[KadenL]

A few years back, I created a little pouch incubator I could attach to myself to have the readings all the time, and due to it being attached to my belly as a precaution in case the heating element failed, the heat will remain constant. I'll have to go dig it up soon due to my purchasing two new rhea or emu eggs (still working that out due to fence issues, but its most probable that it'll wind up being emu. Which is what I wanted in the first place). It's got a heating element that is basically an electric hot water bag and as long as there is no trouble with infrared, it'll be changed to an infrared back-heat pad of some kind. I have to make some adjustments but once I do I'll post a few pictures of it here along with how I keep it humidified.

 

[KadenL]

I have a refridge about 5' tall 2' deep it has 6 shelves with a manual tilt of about 45 degrees. I am looking for ideas for heat and humidity control. Would appreciate any information I can get

Maybe keep an air vent/create an air vent that is partially open at the bottom of the fridge and have a fan to circulate the air. All of those eggs, if you put the number of them that can actually be held into the incubator, will excrete a LOT of c02 which can overheat the incu. As for humidity- Use an old mayonnaise jar or plastic jar of some kind, a fill hose connected to the outside, and a peice of fabric (inside the jar) and fill with water. The water will be absorbed and have a slow release and all you have to do is refill the jar every one or two days. Play around with jar and fabric sizes to find out what combo gives you the desired humidity.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had to pull out my homemade incubator today, I had a hen on 9 eggs she ate one and got goo on the others. I wiped them down, and put them in incubator with 2 others. I did give ma hen new eggs, if they don't work out, I can always toss them in bator with the others.