My DIY Incubator!

[LinzeeBrie]

Just wanted to share My Hovabator is full of shipped eggs right now, and it was driving me crazy having all of these beautiful eggs on the counter from my own ladies... So I built another incubator!

Ignore the temp readings, that was just from having it open for a long time while setting the eggs Temp is holding steady with the inkbird thermostat, and reading the same in all 4 corners! I did pop the styrofoam back into most of the windows for now, so it's easier to bring back up to temp... The front window is double paned though so I'll leave that one, and open the others up at hatch time so the kids can watch from all sides without crowding each other and knocking into things

 

[CluckerFamily]

Wonderful!!

 

[jeapa]

That looks cool. How are you controlling humidity?

 

[LinzeeBrie]

That looks cool. How are you controlling humidity?

I have two hygrometers inside, and a round plastic tray with 3 different sized water channels. (it may or may not have been from a black forest cake ). Humidity stays at around 40% right now even with it DRY, so I don't have to add any for now. (same deal in my hovabator... RH is just hight right now). I'll be using tubing and a syringe when the time comes though!

 

[LegbarMama]

is that a fan on the side of the incubator? I made a similar incubator with an old cooler and none of my eggs made it to lockdown. I'm wondering what I did wrong. I didn't put a fan in or vent holes. Should I have done that? This was my first time trying to hatch eggs.

 

[Mellowmalt]

Hey Jess the OP might have had a similar problem, he posted a month ago and never gave any results which happens all the time so we will never know if like the other gazillion home-made incubators if they were any good or not.

I'm sorry your first attempt didn't go well but you might want to start another thread in future - don't worry about another thread, there's a gazillion already, it's what forums are made for.

Getting an incubator to work well with no experience is hard. The incubators you can buy that are good are designed with a fan to distribute heat evenly.

Without a fan can get good results but it is trickier to judge what the right temperature should be.

You most definitely need vent holes even if they are not very big but without vent holes the eggs cannot breathe. My estimate is that you should have a 1mm hole for every egg in the incubator - that is not a lot but it is needed.

 

[LegbarMama]

Ok I will try that. I should have asked questions before I started incubating. Thank you for the help!

 

[LinzeeBrie]

is that a fan on the side of the incubator? I made a similar incubator with an old cooler and none of my eggs made it to lockdown. I'm wondering what I did wrong. I didn't put a fan in or vent holes. Should I have done that? This was my first time trying to hatch eggs.

Yes it's a fan from an old printer! I poked pencil sized vent holes on all 4 corners near the bottom, plus one on the fan sized and the opposite side, closer to the top.
It worked absolutely amazing - better than my hovabator 1588 I think will post update below!
I'm sorry that your first attempt didn't go well . Good job trying though! I'm happy to help if you have any questions before trying again!

 

[LinzeeBrie]

Hey Jess the OP might have had a similar problem, he posted a month ago and never gave any results which happens all the time so we will never know if like the other gazillion home-made incubators if they were any good or not.

I'm sorry to have left you hanging! In my "defence" I'm a Mom with 5 young kids and a million projects on the go at all times
This particular project was a definite win!! It worked so well. 46 out of 50 hatched and are doing fantastic

 

[Mellowmalt]

wow linzee that is terriffic, and another wow for so many chicks. Like you say that is a project. Really glad it worked so well. Good luck raising them all.