Question for homemade incubator experts?

[_Randall_]

I'm building an incubator, and "I think" I read somewhere on here that if you install a fan in it, it should blow toward the wall of the incubator instead of blowing outward toward the middle. Anybody know if it matters?

 

[bigjohn]

In my opinon, you definitely want to diffuse the air and have the air bath the eggs indirectly, if at all possible. Better to have it blow away from the eggs and against the wall of top.

 

[Barred Rocker]

I just built my first forced air bator. Just used still air's before. Mine dosen't blow directly into the bator I have a separate compartment with a diffusing vent to prevent it from blowing directly on the eggs. It would also affect your humidity so I would say either point it at a wall or in some way that it's not blowing directly at the eggs.

 

[pascopol]

My Brinsea ECO 20 has the fan blowing from the top down toward the eggs but the airstream is diffused by plastic tray with slots. This is one of the top small incubators hatching every hatchable egg if it meant to be hatched.

This set -up inspired a mod in my homemade bator - fan blowing air same fassion from the top down toward the eggs, and as a diffuser I used small (pint) slotted plastic strawberry basket so the fan is blowing the air through the bottom of this basket.

The temperature is more even now through the whole bator, and the direct blast of the air toward eggs turned into a gentle breeze.

Also I am using variable voltage output AC/DC plug to power my fan so I can control speed of the fan slowing it as much as I want if needed.

 

[ozzie]

This is how I built mine (it's from a styrofoam box and I hatched quail and chickens in it)

Homemade incubator

ozzie

 

[_Randall_]

Thanks all for the info.........

 

[Trailerparkfarmer]

Ozzie, the two chamber setup is brilliant. Going to try that out.

On the original fan question, mine is pointing towards the eggs. I was concerned about it at first. But since it is only about 1/8th inch from the wall, it cant get much airflow behind it so it really doesnt blow much air at all. This is with the fan roaring too...can hear it from the other side of the house.

 

[ozzie]

Yes I found that with the air chambers set up the way it is, there is a more even distribution of heat throughout the box. My initial set up was where everything was in the 1 box ie 1 chamber and I found that even with the fan blowing and a foil guard up to stop the bulb from directly shining on the eggs, it was hard to get an even distribution of temperatures throughout the box ie I had cold corners. I found that with this 2 chamber approach, there was only a slight variance in temperatures from one corner to the next, which made for a more even hatch. My first hatch with the 1 chamber box was staggered over 2-3 days... the hatches with the 2 chamber box was tighter - all the eggs hatched within a day of each other.

ozzie

 

[mustanger]

That two chamber concept is essentially what GQF cabinet type incubators use and they have a good rep. I like that design.

David

 

[ozzie]

That two chamber concept is essentially what GQF cabinet type incubators use and they have a good rep. I like that design.

Yup - I researched a few of those cabinet incubators to get the idea and modified it to suit the foam box. The only thing I'm not keen on is that with foam boxes, you pretty much are stuck with fixed sizes (unless you cut them) and there's a fair bit of dead 'space' in there that's unused...

ozzie​