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

[polyanvil]

I'm in the process of recycling an old styrofoam incubater into a homemade cabinet bater. I'll post pics as I go. Hopefully it works

 

[mrgreenjeans53]

Make sure your hands are free of perfumes, grease, oil, hand lotions, etc. too. Eggs are porous and if you have any of the mentioned items on your hands when collecting your eggs for incubation, chances are that you will end up clogging the pores in the eggs and it will reduce your chances for a successful hatch. It's okay to wash your eggs with a mild soap and warm water but make sure you rinse them well. I never wash my eggs before incubation unless they are heavily soiled with chicken poop. A brooding hen doesn't wash her eggs before she incubates them, why should you? Although, a brooding hen emits quite a bit of moisture and heat while incubating her eggs. This moisture, along with turning the eggs with her beak, will remove or reduce most or all of the chicken poop from the eggs. The moisture also softens/thins the shells over the incubation period making it easier for the chick to peck its way out of the shell when he/she is ready to meet the world.

 

[mrgreenjeans53]

Quintinp......I'm sorry to say, you are wrong about the thermostat needing to be close to the heat source. The thermostat should be at the opposite end of the heat source as that allows the entire incubator to be heated to the desired temperature before the thermostat turns off the heat source. Placing the thermostat close to the heat source will turn off the heat source before the entire incubator has reached the desired temp. If you were to place the thermostat for your home close to a register where your furnace blows out hot air, the thermostat would reach the desired temp. you set it for to heat the entire house and turn off your furnace.

 

[sunflowerenvy]

This was made 100% Free from Craigslist Throw aways! I only have 4 hens and one rooster, so he was our first baby! We had to do some experimenting with the temperature but he is happy and healthy! My husband is going to install a permanent light and a computer fan that we also found for free on craigslist. That was my challenge I wanted to see if it was possible to create a "furniture grade" incubator for zero dollars! With my husbands brains we succeeded!

awsome i want one now can u post what u have in there after the other egg is hatch and did u hand turn the egg too?

 

[george83]

my friend,if you use a fan and a lamp connected to the thermostat,and if you cover the lamp with aluminium foil in order to eliminate the ultra red radiation that tends to overheat the surface of the eggs,if you keep a moisture level of 50-55%,if you turn eggs twice a day and if you adjust your thermostat to open at 37,5 and close at 37,8 celcius you should have a hatch rate of 80-85% of the fertile eggs.

 

[mayberrygirl]

my friend,if you use a fan and a lamp connected to the thermostat,and if you cover the lamp with aluminium foil in order to eliminate the ultra red radiation that tends to overheat the surface of the eggs,if you keep a moisture level of 50-55%,if you turn eggs twice a day and if you adjust your thermostat to open at 37,5 and close at 37,8 celcius you should have a hatch rate of 80-85% of the fertile eggs.

Sorry, but I feel the fan should run all the time if you are going to have one.

Quintinp......I'm sorry to say, you are wrong about the thermostat needing to be close to the heat source. The thermostat should be at the opposite end of the heat source as that allows the entire incubator to be heated to the desired temperature before the thermostat turns off the heat source. Placing the thermostat close to the heat source will turn off the heat source before the entire incubator has reached the desired temp. If you were to place the thermostat for your home close to a register where your furnace blows out hot air, the thermostat would reach the desired temp. you set it for to heat the entire house and turn off your furnace.

I have to disagree with you. When using a HWH thermostat, it needs to be within 2" from the heat source as it is designed to pick up radiant heat. Any further away (as in the other side of the incubator) and the temp will swing way too much and you will have a 6-15* temp variance.

 

[houseof8]

This another way to build a homemad inqubator, and the best part is you can find most of the parts for free or very cheap.

 

[SouthDakotan]

Sorry, but I feel the fan should run all the time if you are going to have one.
I have to disagree with you. When using a HWH thermostat, it needs to be within 2" from the heat source as it is designed to pick up radiant heat. Any further away (as in the other side of the incubator) and the temp will swing way too much and you will have a 6-15* temp variance.

I have to ask if the thermostat is not willing to read the temp by the eggs, then why use that style of thermostat? We're not placing the thermostat in the incubator just to turn things on... I'd think the most important task is to properly read the temp NEAR the eggs for that is where the temp is important. Having it within 2" of the heat source but the eggs not being in that placement would mean its getting the reading that is 2" away, not where the eggs are. Wouldn't it? The temp swing issue you speak of, is puzzling to me too. Isn't the purpose of the fan is to circulate the air throughout the incubator? So shouldn't that mean the entire incubator SHOULD have a stable temperature. If the temp swings so radically, then I'd think that the whole design is flawed that one is using. The purpose of the heater and the thermostat is to make sure the EGGS are at proper temp.... not just to work with each other. If it forgets the main function within the cycle, then why have it?

I'm still learning but this debate seems more confusing to me than ever. So I'm trying to understand the science you & the others discussing here are justifying your views on. I think part of the problem is that most people are using square boxes as incubators and just as in pottery kilns, air has difficulty circulating in square boxes. Could this be partly the problem people are having with air circulation and temperature swings?

Just asking everyone. Trying to understand as its my hope to build an incubator later.

 

[mayberrygirl]

You have to remember that a hot water heater thermostat was not made to read ambient temps like other kinds of thermostats, if you are going to use one you need to know it was made to read radiant heat, that is why it gets mounted on the side of a hot water heater. You have to treat a light bulb like a hot water heater and get it close enough to read the radiant heat. Trust me, it does work to keep the whole of the incubator at a steady temp without wild swings. There is a YouTube video by Confederate Money Farms (a member here, but off hand do not know his screen name, rebel something), he shows in one video how moving the thermostat closer to the bulb will keep temps more steady. I wish I had taken video before switching to the digital thermostat. But I had mine 1.5" away from the light bulb (I was running a 60watt -> fan blowing -> 40watt -> thermostat {this was on the back wall of my bator, in that order, fan blowing over the 40watt towards the thermostat}), I ran constant temps of 99.5-100* in my igloo cooler ($18 red one from Walmart).

 

[mayberrygirl]

Here is the website with videos and explaining why - http://cmfarm.us/WHTincubator.html