My Basic DIY Incubator

[torilovessmiles]

Yayy hopefully you'll have some chickies in a couple weeks!

Good luck with yours too, it looks really good!

 

[Stewieb71]

Here's mine. It might give some people some ideas. Worked a treat.

 

[torilovessmiles]

Day 9! They seem to b doing pretty well! I'm going to candle one of the ones that I know has an air cell again tomorrow, to see if I can see veins. I may try another light, as well. I was using an LED spotlight.

 

[frg34]

Last night was was the beginning of 12th day for me. Candled my 15. 12 look good; removed 3 clears.

Here's mine. It might give some people some ideas. Worked a treat.

Do you have ventilation holes or just rely on top not being airtight?

 

[Bushmansbliss]

I've tried the same thing. Its a very fulfilling thing to hatch your own chicks from a bator you've built yourself. I had a failed first attempt (light went while I was at work) and I rebuilt it similar to frg34's design. I went with 2 lights incase one went and a pc fan spliced to an old dc converter. I also changed from foam to an igloo cooler. The bator held perfect humidity and to within .7 degrees of my my 99.5 degree goal regardless of what the room temperature was. After those changes I got ~95% hatch rate. Can't wait to see how it turns out for you, best of luck

 

[Bushmansbliss]

 

[kuhnse51]

I think my next venture will be to make an Igloo cooler bator because its hard to keep a steady temp with the styrofoam one. Your guys' incubators look really good, I need to figure out how to do the fans and the more complex set up.

@torilovessmiles woo thats awesome! I can't wait to candle mine especially since temps got pretty erratic today :/

 

[Bushmansbliss]

If your having a hard time holding your temp where you want it, you could try lining the bottom of the bator with fire place bricks, normal bricks or a couple large stones to hold the heat. Worked like a charm for me. I just spaced them out enough that the air could still flow between them.

 

[kuhnse51]

I was thinking about putting a rock of some sort in there but I don't have space..maybe next time! I was wondering if that actually worked.


Well...I got impatient and candled one quick and it looked like there may have been a "blood island" developing!

 

[birdman55]

I have made two of the coolerbators now and they are super easy to do....don't mind the humidity as today was just the temp run to see how fast it would stabilize...it was done within the hour...more like thirty minutes....your cycle on off time needs to be fast...so it would turn on and then turn off quick....and then turn back on quick...the faster the on / off cycles are the more precise your temp will be...I initially had problems with a little swing but then I just upgraded the bulbs to a bigger size and the cycling was a lot faster...I would recommend two bulbs as well incase one burns out....if you need any help on designing them you can go below in blue on the building paradise for the birds and I have a step by step with tons of pictures to walk you right along...hope this helps...feel free to pm me also I you have any questions....












couple of the birds that were just hatched not to long ago with the coolerbator...