I am thinking of building my first cabinet style incubator out of a wine fridge. I have the fridge and fan so far. I need a thermostat and heating element. On of my questions is I see that most people put in eggs at different hatching dates. Can I hatch in my cabinet incubator? If so what does everyone do when they open the door to get the chicks out? Is it ok to do that? Any help or info on building would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
I think I know what you mean when you say you've seen people setting eggs at different dates. That is called staggered hatching, and is usually not recommended. I wouldn't recommend it. I like to save my eggs up to 10 days, (making sure that the old eggs are turned each day I gather new eggs.)
Most people will tell you to have a separate hatcher. This keeps the incubator very clean, and the hatcher can be made non-absorbent, as to make the cleaning easier after a hatch.
Incubate eggs the first 18 days in an incubator, and then move them to a hatcher for the last 3 days.
I only recommend the above information if you are doing a staggered hatch.
If you do what I do, and set eggs all at once, I would say to incubate the first 18 days, keeping the eggs in an egg turner, or hand turning them and then the last 3 days you stop turning them and raise the humidity to about 70%.
If you have anymore questions on hatching, or even building your incubator, message me. I enjoy helping people make incubators, and am happy to see when a person has success in their new incubator.
