Needing some suggestion on my homemade incubator...How can I get steady humidity?What is a good gene

[bairo]

looks like me and you have the same incu. except i have a hotwater heater thermo. in ky our temp. fluxuates 70 in the day and 35 at nite. how do you keep temp the same? i average 94 to 101 and i told thats to much.

its trial and error. I dont know how your set up...but I'll tell you what helps in case you have not tried or dont have these yet.

1. FAN! you need a fan. Otherwise you have an oversized LG. And you dont want one of those
2. Thermostat. Wafer is best (place these dead center in the bator and not close to the light) Water heater upper thermostat is probably the 2nd best. Take these apart carefully (drill the rivots with about 1/8" bit) or carefully pull apart the housing (just depends which thermostat you have) now drill 2 or 3 1/8" holes in the housing being careful not to damage the little wafer thermostat inside. Put it back together (super glue, bolts..whatever works) Place this 1.5 inches from bulb.
3. try lining the bottom with bricks if you have the room, pebbles if you dont have that much room. These act as very good heat sinks and help keep the temp steady. (One of my smaller bators is a 15 year old cooler and I can hold a 1.5 degree temp swing)
4. Keep the incubator in a place in the house (not outside) so it is not trying to keep up with huge temp swings. Mine is in my basement (up off the concrete floor) where it is always 67 degrees

If you can get to 99-101 for two days solid....then go ahead and load it up. If you can not hit 2 degree swing on those #'s, then dont waste the eggs on it.

 

[WalkingWolf1]

here is how mine is set up. Kinda like bairo described. It works great. You will notice on the left side there is a white thermometer. This is where I put the tupperware container of water for lockdown. I put 3 X 1/2 pint jars of water in corners. If I put the fourth the humidity goes up into the 80's. The light bulbs are only 25W.

 

[bairo]

Nice job.....are you liking the trays so far at hatching time?? Or you removing at lock down?

 

[WalkingWolf1]

..are you liking the trays so far at hatching time?? Or you removing at lock down?

Thanks. I've done both successfully. Personally, I feel better when the egg is laying flat on its own but I haven't experienced any issues with the tray. On shipped eggs I leave them in the tray to hatch.

 

[quintinp]

its trial and error. I dont know how your set up...but I'll tell you what helps in case you have not tried or dont have these yet.

1. FAN! you need a fan. Otherwise you have an oversized LG. And you dont want one of those
2. Thermostat. Wafer is best (place these dead center in the bator and not close to the light) Water heater upper thermostat is probably the 2nd best. Take these apart carefully (drill the rivots with about 1/8" bit) or carefully pull apart the housing (just depends which thermostat you have) now drill 2 or 3 1/8" holes in the housing being careful not to damage the little wafer thermostat inside. Put it back together (super glue, bolts..whatever works) Place this 1.5 inches from bulb.
3. try lining the bottom with bricks if you have the room, pebbles if you dont have that much room. These act as very good heat sinks and help keep the temp steady. (One of my smaller bators is a 15 year old cooler and I can hold a 1.5 degree temp swing)
4. Keep the incubator in a place in the house (not outside) so it is not trying to keep up with huge temp swings. Mine is in my basement (up off the concrete floor) where it is always 67 degrees

If you can get to 99-101 for two days solid....then go ahead and load it up. If you can not hit 2 degree swing on those #'s, then dont waste the eggs on it.

I like most of what you said, but Don't drill out the rivets. It just makes life harder than what it needs to be.

Here's a video of how you can drill the holes, and where they can be drilled without problems.

 

[msheets1975]

Thanks for all the advice guys,I've stuck with the water heater thermostat with two holes drilled through the ceramic in front for air flow and the temp holds steady without spikes.Humidity wasn't as hard as I feared either...I adjusted it with a bigger container/surface area and just add a sponge or another small container to bump it up for hatch....This is WAY to fun!!!

 

[msheets1975]

 

[gallo4319]

The temp stays very steady but the humidity drops to 40%...I had a bigger water tray in there and it was too high(I think) What is a good average humidity level?

nice i like that way is made