My homemade incubator **BABY PICS!!**

[arlee453]

Hmmm another thought - i had taped the themostat to the wall on the cooler - maybe the tape was restricting air flow/sensing of the temp?

I've removed the tape and put it back down on the grid. We'll see if that helps too!

And, I'm out of bulbs, so that's one more thing to get a wally world tonight...

-S

 

[arlee453]

Back from a trip to walmart. Got there and there were firetrucks and police everywhere - at least we were able to sneak into Dollar Tree and get the water wigglers and also some light bulbs.

Lady at the Dollar Tree said that they just evacuated walmart but didn't say why - i'm betting a bomb threat, considering that when we left the parking lot, the police had all the entrances blocked to the whole shopping center.

Anyway, we got the water wrigglers, and they are warming up now. Since I took the thermostat down off the wall and put in the grid at the bottom, the temps are more steady, but now I need to turn up the heat a bit again.

Hopefully the WW will help figure out if the temps are steady enough to hatch or not...

Wish me luck!
Susan

 

[arlee453]

Another question.... after reading through a bunch of other's posts, I'm shooting for 99.5 to 100 with the probe in the water weasel, right?? So, it's not as important what the air temp is, I need to get the WW up to 99.5 or 100?

I thought I had this all figured out and now I'm second guessing everything!!

 

[Tuffoldhen]

If it's any help go over to BYC EZboard and go thru the threads there under Incubating and Hatching eggs...there use to be some good posts on homemade bators...

 

[MissPrissy]

Good job, arlee.

The idea is to mimic the temp inside of a developing egg. 99.5 - 100 is ideal.

I have read many places that the inside temp at 99.5 and the outside temp at no higher than 102 with 40-60% humidity is ideal.

I have never gotten the inside and outside temps to agree like that.

I pay attn to the inside the water wiggler temp and don't worry too much about the outside.

With my potato box bator I am noticing with heat rising from the bottom the 2 temps are closer.

 

[Flufnstuffs~FluffySilkies]

GREAT JOB - I would also find something to put around all four sides befor the hatch,
The fisrt one hatching will roll the other eggs into the cracks and the newly hatched chicks
may get stuck in the sides between the wire and the cooler walls.
GOOD LUCK

 

[arlee453]

well, 24 hours later, the bator is improved and holding temp much better.

I've added small holes all the way around for air venting and a couple larger holes near the top to let out the moisture.

I'm running pretty consistently between 99 and 100 degrees with the water wiggler probe.

Other 'upgrades' - raided my DH's OOOOLLLLLDDDD PC and the kids toybox and came up with just what I needed to add a PC fan.

I also put a guard around the lightbulb and added a tube to add water externally.

Here's the new pics...
The water filler upper:

The inside - two shots here...

The first shows my therms/humidity guages. Note the range of humidity readings. every last one has a different humidity reading. I figure if the lowest is no lower than about 45% and the highest isn't higher than 70% I should be OK...

This is a view looking straight down - note the PC fan in the corner blowing towards the light - the fan has done WONDERS for keeping the temps in a smaller range.

 

[MissPrissy]

You did an eggcellent job! Now, what eggs are you going to set? LOL

 

[speckledhen]

By George, I think she's got it! Good job! I bet your AcuRite is not far off on that humidity. I own two of those. One is dead-on and the other reads 5% too low, consistently. I calibrated them, so that's how I know. The AcuRite Indoor Humidity thing was giving someone else on here bizarrely low readings-it may be like the one you have reading 26%-bet that one's wrong.

 

[WindyOaksYokes]

Arlee, you did good girl!!!!! Let me know how it works out for you!!! Thanks