Temp at 99 - 100, but the eggs dont feel warm?

[Anthony-Smith]

Using a damp sponge will dry out fast, that's why your humidity is dropping. When you get home find a cup or small bowl that will fit in your incubator and add room temp water in the incubator. Or take that sponge and cut it to half the size of the container, make sure it has some height so it's sticking out a little. Stick it in the cup and add room temp water, then place it inside the incubator. The cup and sponge is generally for lockdown cause it will maintain humidity around 70-80. Check it every couple of days.

Will do! I guess Im also going to have to raise the metal net I have to fit a bowl at the bottom as well.

Maintaining humidity around 40-55 should work out.
In my opinion, any DIY incubator must have a digital thermostat, whether it's still air or fan powered. Cause if you accidently over heat the eggs there pretty much done.

How would I add a digital thermostat? Is there a video or some guide I could read to set one up? Most of the DIY incubators I saw on youtube only had a thermometer, and not a thermostat.

 

[Tonyroo]

I'll post pictures later of my new DIY incubator with Swedish Flower hen eggs. So you can get an idea.

 

[Anthony-Smith]

I'll post pictures later of my new DIY incubator with Swedish Flower hen eggs. So you can get an idea.

Thanks! Please do!

 

[Tonyroo]

This incubator was made from old shelving I had that I no longer used. Bought the digital thermostat and pc fan on Ebay, bought lightbulb and base at Home depot, used left over lamp cord to connect digital thermostat to lamp base. All items purchased added up to about $25.00. The digital temp and hygrometer I had already. This was made 2 weeks ago.

 

[MGG]

This incubator was made from old shelving I had that I no longer used. Bought the digital thermostat and pc fan on Ebay, bought lightbulb and base at Home depot, used left over lamp cord to connect digital thermostat to lamp base. All items purchased added up to about $25.00. The digital temp and hygrometer I had already. This was made 2 weeks ago.

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Awesome! Good luck with your hatch! What day are they on?

 

[Tonyroo]

Day 3, I'll need to candle them tonight and see if there developing.

 

[Anthony-Smith]

This incubator was made from old shelving I had that I no longer used. Bought the digital thermostat and pc fan on Ebay, bought lightbulb and base at Home depot, used left over lamp cord to connect digital thermostat to lamp base. All items purchased added up to about $25.00. The digital temp and hygrometer I had already. This was made 2 weeks ago.

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Sorry for the late reply, yesterday was busy. Man, that incubator looks legit! Makes mine look like crap, lol. You need to post a video tutorial on how to make that!

So how does it work? Does the thermostat kick the fan on when it gets to a certain temperature, and does it turn off when it reaches the desired temperature?

As far as my eggs go, there are 3, maybe 4 eggs that I'm starting to see a small red ring around, so I guess they are still developing even though the temp got a little high temporarily. I swapped the 40 watt incandescent for a 25 watt, and its making it way easier to manage the temperature (If anything, its a little harder to get to 102 right now, averaging around 99 -100 (its gotten up to 104 though, so its possible). I'm going to build another box to see if I can get it perfect, as the one I'm using now still requires daily adjusting to manage the temp. I've got the humidity pretty consistently in the 40% range now too, and can get it up in the 50% range for a few hours.

Also, I have some pretty porous eggs in there, and I thought I read somewhere that porous eggs are not ideal for hatching? I cant even see if they are developing anyways. Do you know anything about that?

 

[Tonyroo]

The digital thermostat is only for the light base, it turns off at 99.7 and comes on at 99.0. The fan is on all the time. It's placed right above the thermostat sensor next to the eggs. So I get accurate readings.

Sounds like a good decision to lower the bulb size. You shouldn't need to mess with the humidity and temp so much. When you have eggs sitting in 103 and above you run the risk of cooking it.

Building a DIY incubator is trying to make it function exactly like a purchased incubator.
If you build another one, think about how many eggs you want in it?
Do you wanna make an auto egg turner or just hand turning them?
How big or small the box size should be?
Also will this be used a lot or just one time use?
Depending on those questions it should help guide you to build a workable incubator.
Hope the helps.