Newest Homemade Incubator

[Spear]

I know this is an old post but I am hoping someone will pick up on this. I have looked at a lot of homemade incubators on line. Most people say they just buy a regular thermonstat. I have to wonder. Can the eggs withstand temperature changes of 1-2 degrees without ill effects. I always assumed you had to keep them at a steady temperature. I don't think household thermostats can keep my temps at a steady 99.5F. I have not done this yet but hope to this year. Any thoughts.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
1 to 2 degrees is no big deal. They can hatch with up to something like 6 degrees. Remember you are reading air temp. The eggs have more thermal mass than air an change temp far slower than air. So you can get great hatches with lots of different thermostats.

 

[Spear]

Well that makes things easier. Thanks for the reply.

 

[midget_farms]

What he said - remember the hen will get up & eat & drink daily. So in nature the temp will fluctuate too.

I have a house thermo on mine. It took some adjusting - but it runs at about 1.5 degrees of variability.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Yes in nature the temp will fluctuate too, but it it will NEVER go above the broody' body temperature, which is NEVER above 100F or so (probably less than that) unless your broody has pneumonia, or high fewer but in this case she is not going to last anyway.

Incubators upward spikes whatever commercial (Little Giant famous for that, Hovabator in less extent) or homemade will kill embrios if a spike last long enough to raise internal egg temp above 102 F. (Do you check your temps in the middle of the night in your LG? I did and hatch some chickens but I want to sleep at night now that's why I toss my LG.)

If your eggs did not hatch assuming they were fertile, and showed signs of development (kindling) besides low humidity issues after lockdown, they were most likely killed by frying.

 

[Spear]

So Pascopol, where do I get a thermostat to prevent the high spikes of temperature, a degree or more?

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
I am using ReptiTemp 500R in my homemade bator, in fact I have 2 of them, second is to control spikes in my Brower Tophatch which I use mainly as a hatcher, love it as a hatcher due to large transparent dome, large capacity, easy cleaning and ease of humidity control. I also have Brinsea ECO 20, that's a jewel.

ReptiTemp 500R is about 25 bucks, has a probe which you insert into your bator, then plug your bator into it.

NO WIRING NECESSARY. It will keep the temp within 0.4 - 0.5 F range. Once you set it lets say on 100F cut off, it will NEVER go above even 1/10 of degree above 100F no matter what the room temperature is, then it will kick "in" when the temp drops to about 94.5 to 95.6F.

I have mine about 4 years now, many succesful hatches, this year I bought second one to control my Brower TH120 which is also known as an unstable bator, but I like it cause is solid, nonstyrofoam and lasting bator, now controlled by my second Repti is an excellent bator rivaling Brinseas, Lyons and cabinets for only $25.00 imrovement!

Just google ReptiTemp 500R about $25.00 more or less. just as good or better as thermostats running $100 +.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

102 inside the egg is far from deadly. I dont advise people to shoot for that temp but you can hatch at that temp. 103 is where it starts to get dangerous but the inside of the egg its self has to be above that for a extended amount of time to be an issue. Over 105 is when the internal temp becomes terminal. As long as you can keep the internal temp floating between 97 an 103 you are ok. Which means an incubator that has an air temp going back an forth from 95 to 105 will still hatch eggs. Having a more stable incubator is nice but only because it is less stressful on the operator an easier to monitor. Most of mine go from 99 to 100 but even at 98 to 101 there is almost no change in internal egg temp so there is no point in trying to get more stable other than to ease the operators nerves.

An just for reference my incubator that has the webcams in it has been running for almost a year going between 102 an 103 with good hatches. Not something I would tell others to copy but its one of the long term experiments I have running right now.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
if you just measure from the top to the bottom of the egg in a styro bator that does not have a fan you will see 97-102 / 103 , And they hatch, depending on how old the eggs were when shipped and how far they traveled a lot of time they hatch well I payed a little more when building my bator for the t-stat but the differential on it is 1* that and there are a coupla other option as how it cuts on or off

 

[Robotponys]

I have an AC in my room so should I use styrofoam for the lid instead? I could cut a hole in the lid for the bulb to go through and the lamp to stay up? If it still fluctuates, I could do the same thing for the sides so I could see through. Also I can't find that lamp on lowes or walmart's website. ?? If I use styrofoam do you think a 25 watt or 40 watt would do it? Yeah this is 'slightly' late

Edit: found a 60w lamp w/ a 40w bulb! Should I still use styrofoam?