Tell us about your first incubator

[rebelcowboysnb]

12V home build. House thermostat, pc fan, car tail light, nes-quick box an a cooler. No money input at all an great hatches..

 

[TNBarnQueen]

Quote:
Rebelcowboy....I am very impressed!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I was to. For a first try it was great. It ran on 12V. Ran on under 5 watts total. Was made from junk I had on hand. It kept within .2 degrees of 99.5*F. And it gave me great hatches. I have built a lot of incubators over the years an that first one is the one I'm most proud of. I just wish I still had it. I gave it to a teen I mentored to get her in to the hobby.

 

[TNBarnQueen]

I would love to have my first incubator.....I am getting ready to start an experiment with one using a styrofoam cooler. I love dabbling with science and seeing what I can get out of Mother Nature. I think she is use to me pushing her buttons...hehe I have a tropical plant that is simply NOT suppose to live in cold weather here in East TN. Well....it has come out for 5 years now as with some other things I have experimented with. I think I missed my calling in being a "Mad Scientist"! Will keep you posted on how this works. I am going to use a bowl of water...cut holes in each side for ventilation and for heat run a bulb unit through the top. Pop in a thermometer and hydrometer. I will try a couple eggs to see what happens.

 

[midget_farms]

My first incubator was my arm pit. I carried that egg for 3 weeks in there!

Ha - just kidding.

I just built my first one. Set the eggs 36 hrs ago!

If I get creative I can load 96 eggs into it. My first set is 58. This gives me a little room to maneuver.

I have copper tubes running to the water trays & a home thermostat wired through a relay to kick on 2 60 watt bulbs.

I'm planning to do an upgrade this spring to a digital thermostat - this one works well - but I'd like to be able to push a button & set the temp vs. adjusting & waiting & adjusting & waiting.

 

[TNBarnQueen]

A friend and I are incubating 41 eggs right now in a bator from Tractor Supply that I borrowed from a friend who quit chickens. I could not believe how little there was to it!!! We candled the eggs today and have 8 possible unfertile ones..hard to tell at just 7 days. I was amazed though at how easily the embryo showed up.
Rebelcowboy.....how did you wire the thermostat into the incubator? I think we have one that is not in use cause when we had our new unit put in the also moved the location and put a new thermo in. I may have to snag it while hubby's back is turned. Never fear...will put a pic over the hole...wonder how long before he notices??

On the bator we are using from TS...it needed something to measure humidity....could not find one anywhere! Any suggestions?
Thanks everyone!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
Those thermostats have a metal coil with a glass bubble on the end. Three wires stick out of the glass bubble. Follow the wires away from the bulb an cut it loose on the far end. I dont remember off the top of my heat which wire is which but 12V power goes in to one wire an out another to the light. The third is not needed. Other light wire is grounded or goes to the negative of your battery/power plug. If you wire it wrong it just wont work right, no harm, no foul. The wires can only handle about 5V DC so a 1157 tail light bulb is perfect. If you replace the light with a relay you can then run 110V AC threw the relay. I have ran over 1800 watts that way....

Make sure to tape the wires back to the middle of the thermostat leaving some slack. If the wires are pushing or pulling on the glass bubble at all it wont work.