My homemade version of an incubator

[McSpin]

Quote:
I have multiple thermomters. I'm depending on the water weasel with a medical thermomter inserter into the middle. It is supposedly accurate to within .2 degrees F. My water weasel temperature is 99.5 F.

For humidity, I have a small, cheap digital hygrometer, that I'm not convinced is very reliable. I'm going to rig up a wet thermometer and shoot for a reading of 85 degrees the first 18 days, and about 80-82 degrees the last 3.

 

[McSpin]

Quote:
I'm a beginner at this myself. However, I would imagine that you can hatch anything, as long as you get the temperature and humidity proper for that egg. I know there are different incubation periods for some species, but I'm unsure of any temp or humidity differences.

 

[McSpin]

Quote:
I thought of this, but couldn't figure out how to do it. I have many old power supplies and it's easy enough to take one out and plug it in, but I couldn't figure out how to switch it on. Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly does the transformer do? Does it somehow allow you to switch the power supply on and off?

 

[redneck]

Here are some pictures of how I am doing mine. I am in the process of building an incubator. I am using the power supply box to build my control box for the incubator.
I hope this works (pics I mean):
Most of the components are hear. I got a couple of 12V DC lights, they will just be indicator lights to let me know when something is on.

Here's a shot of the transformer hooked up.

You can see the end is cut off with the 12V DC light wired in for the initial test.

Some additional pictures:

 

[McSpin]

Okay, now I see what you meant. You took the fan out, wired a switch into it and then wired it to a transformer because it was a DC fan. Initially, I thought you were leaving it in the power supply which has it's own transformers. Great idea!

I was a bit bugged by the noise of the fan in my heater, so I started scrounging around and low and behold, I found a small 6w muffin fan - simply perfect for the task and an AC fan to boot. It's also totally silent which is a bonus.

I decided to attached it to the styro top, that way it would blow directly down. I used a couple wood spacers on the inside to keep it an inch away from the styro and I screwed through the stryro into a strip of wood on the outside, to hold it in place.

 

[McSpin]

I thought I'd post a photo of my egg rack. Is this enough angle for turning, if I flip it end for end 3-4 times/day? I can easily raise the high side a bit if needed. This would make turning a lot easier than doing each egg manually. I'd just like to know it's adequate, without having to test it out on eggs. So, if anyone knows, I'd appreciate your advise.

 

[jimnjay]

The tilt on your egg turner looks good. I would poke holes in the foam of the egg carton for better air circulation, on the bottom 4-5 small holes should work.

 

[aran]

ok guys... having absolutely no electrical or carpentry type skills I have managd to get the styrofoam box with the glass lid in place made. I have removed the fan from the old computer downstairs and have found an old transformer unit with wire attached.

Here is the problem...the fan has 3wires attached to it and the transformer only has two...what to do what to do?

Any ideas for the constructionally impaired among us?

aran

 

[redneck]

I'm not sure, make sure your fan is 12V DC. I checked 2 power supplies that I have and both have only 2 wires coming from the fan.

 

[aran]

i figured it out mate...so there are two fans in the computer i pulled apart...i found the one in the power supply ( i only knew what that looked like from your pic)--> that does only have 2 wires. The other fan I found in there has 3 coming from it.

I have several of those transformer things but NONE of them does the 110AC -12VDC. I will have to try and find one

Where do I get the switches etc from?