temperature and humidity help

[farmerjon1988]

hi all

after building my homemade incubator today and leaving it to sit for a 4 hours ive noticed that the temperature is far to high and the humidity is far to low (although creeping up very very very slowly)
how can i fix this?

i have made it from a cooler, i am using a 40 watt bulb and 2 small dipping sauce bowls both half filled with water :|

any advice would be great as i would like to get it ready and working properly before my eggs arrive

many thanks

 

[growinupinfl]

I built my own incubator also, and I tried what you are talking about with the bowls.

You need to go back to using sponges in a pan. It is not the amount of water but the surface area that you need. I put two large sponges in there and keep it at about 50 by only pouring water on one, then before lock down I pour a good amount of water into the pan and a lot of water.

You also need to go ahead and get a cheap water thermostat from a home improvement store. I tried just different bulb wattage's all sorts of stuff and spent a fortune trying to do what a $7.00 thermostat did. They are not hard to wire in. If you need specific directions I or someone else will post them. I hatched my first eggs from my own mix breeds and all was pretty well after those standards were put in place and my pride of thinking I can do better was humbled.

I hatched my first batch with my own mix breeds. I was rearranging it every other day or so, with different size bowls of water, substrate in the bottom, bulbs, bulb placement. And truly what worked best, was the half inch wire bottom, thermostat, and sponges in a pan. My husband was ready to choke me for having to reinvent the wheel..

Now that I am dealing with shipped eggs for the first time, I'm trying to figure out how to hatch in the carton because of jiggly air sacs in some of my eggs.

Good luck

Christal