Oh joy. Building an Incubator. Build with me

[KinderKorner]

Alright so I have been wanting to build a hatcher for some time now. Because I would like more space for eggs, and also my Hova-bator seems to keep killing them in the last 3 days.

I'm not sure a homemade styrofoam hatcher would work any better. But i might as well give it a try.

I've looked and looked at all the incubator posts. And it seems I am going to just put a mix of all of them and see what happens.

So far I've gotten.

Bottle Lamp Kit - around $6.50
6v DC adapter for the fan - FREE! Yay
25 Watt Light Bulbs - $2.00
Hardware Cloth, I already had some extra - FREE
Total- $8.50

I've been looking for the biggest ice chest I could find. I was about to give up, when I ran into a friend at walmart and they said they had an extra chest which they got fish in from the pet store. It wasn't as big as I would like, but it's bigger than the others I could find. So, Hurray!

It measures about 13 inches x 13.inches in the inside.

When all is said and done it will be able to hold 18 eggs. And have a little open area for them to rest and wait for the others to come out.

I still have yet to buy:

Water Heater Thermostat
PC Fan

I bought a little fan from walmart, but it blows way too hard. So I am going to pick up a little 4" PC fan tomorrow from Radio Shack.

I also looked at several different stores for a thermostat, but it seemed that none of them could go lower than 120f. So I will be trying to find a lower one tomorrow.

I am still a little confuzed with the wiring. I looked at it a bit, but I can't do much until I get the two things I am missing. Hopefully I will get it right. I am a little afraid of shocking myself after all the warnings on here though. lol

I will be adding some pictures later tonight or tomorrow. Of what I got so far.

Tomorrow I will begin building.

 

[Chickenkid]

for the thermostat. Go to home depot. i got mine from there. It is hte cheapest on. It is like 8 and change. I will go from 90F to 150F.

 

[Chotii]

I just built a 'big' one yesterday, actually, after struggling along with a tiny one that couldn't hold a stable temperature, and losing one egg after another. I may still lose them, but by gum it won't be because of fluctuating temperature!

I advertised on Craigslist for an Omaha Steak shipping box. A woman contacted me and said her friend had 'a whole back porch full of them' and how many did I want? She went to her friend's house, got 2, we met (bless her!) and I got the two. They're huge! 24" x 19" x 17" exterior measurements.

I paid about :

- $10 for the lamp kit, Home Depot
- $3 for the water heater thermostat, thrift store
- $10 for a roll of hardware cloth, since I'd used my last roll up
- $13 for a thermometer/hygrometer with probe, Home Depot
- $2 for 25W bulbs
- $3.50 for a water-wiggler
- $0 for a plexiglas 'window', already had
- $0 for the styrofoam box


...so, I've more into it than you do. I might almost have just bought a Hovabator on Bonanzle.com instead! Anyway.... It took me about 3 hours because I had to re-do several steps repeatedly, and I printed out the wiring diagram on FrenchHen's Brooder Page to work from, with the 'wrong' picture X'd out with a red pen.

I used a 9" cake pan for the water originally, but the humidity was up about 75%, so reduced surface area to a small child's novelty bowl

In the end, I wound up cutting 4 'air intake' holes near the bottom, and one 'air outlet' hole in the top, to regulate humidity.

I transferred the 2 live eggs I still have after losing so many in my other homemade incubator

and it is so wonderful to see the temperature a steady 99, with 50% humidity!

If all goes well, I'll have a duckling hatching around the June 29th and a White Crested Polish on July 2nd or so.

 

[ChickenTiff]

I have been working on mine and no matter what I try I can not get my humidity ANYWHERE near high enough.....
Tiff