Styrofoam incubator now holding temp better than ever! (upgraded with pics)

[AmyLynn2374]

Hatch is complete! We did amazing compared to our last few hatches. We went from about 25% to 71% hatch rate


This time we only had 27 eggs to set (winter egg production slowed us down). But 19 hatched! ( I didn't even check for infertile eggs so the % good be even better ) I did 45% to 50% humidity throughout incubation and put two sponges in at lockdown because I thought my air cells looked pretty good. Humidity boosted to about 70%.


The new box worked amazing! I added 3 dime size holes to each side for a little more ventilation:


I'd recommend this to anyone who has a styrofoam incubator and wants to be able to use it outside of their "warm room."

Things I would change:
Add a bigger viewing window at the top
The foam keeps the heat AND moisture in so I had condensate on the outside lip of the lid. Wouldn't have cared but I had this on my desk next to my laptop. So be careful with this


Otherwise it works great!

Congrats!!!

 

[DaveOmak]

Interesting Article on Air Requirements during incubation...

 

[biteme2134]

Nice article. I was looking into seeing if my box would have sufficient oxygen, but I guess with our successful hatch it seems that it is fine. I did open it at least once a day to look at my temperature and humidity monitor ( the box not the bator ) so I'm sure that added more fresh air.

 

[DaveOmak]

With your successful hatch, you obviously did a whole lot right.... I thought the article was informative...

I have no idea how you would measure exchange and exchange rate... especially in a home setting with small incubator.... If you used an aquarium pump to exchange air, that would be fairly easy to measure, but natural draft through a small hole... not me...

 

[biteme2134]

Also I did add a fan so a still air could have different results with no real air flow... I did look online before I started my hatch to see how you could measure oxygen levels. They have machines to do it... But not at a backyard chicken*er price!
I will take the unit outside now that we're dipping into the low 40s at night and test its temperature holding ability. That was a big part of why I made this... My bator couldn't hold a temperature if the room temp dropped below 75 degrees.
I did this hatch in a room that varied between 68 and 75 degrees so I'm excited so far!

 

[mymilliefleur]

Very interesting! I may try something like this in the future. Thanks for sharing.

 

[biteme2134]

You're welcome! Thanks for your interest. I just finished a hatch this weekend and it's still working great. The only downside I would raise it I find it being just glued I'm being careful not to accidently break the foam apart. I have re glued one part of the lid that got a little loose. It's still holding good but just an FYI.

 

[HerbGir1972]

Very cool