Those of you that built your bator, light bulb recommendations

[bee_wrangler]

For mine I got a double bulb socket that screws into the regular lamp socket (about $4) behind that I put a dimmer switch that also screws into the light fixture, then the double fixture screws into that. For bulbs I have a 90watt and a 40watt, I tried many types and found these two together is perfect for my bator but as someone else said it depends on the size of your bator. I had tried using black lights and found them to be perfect because they give off alot of heat but not much light at all, so the room is not lit up all night but I could not find them in the right size bulbs needed, only 75watt and 40watt bulbs. One thing I had alot of trouble with was keeping the temp up and steady. I found that wrapping the bator with pink insolation and duct tape over top made a massive difference in keeping a steady temp aswell as not having to turn the lamp up too high. Its not real pretty but does the trick lol.

 

[bee_wrangler]

Just too add, the reason I use two bulbs is because after I open it up I can crank up the dimmer switch and heat it back up alot faster than if I was to wait for one bulb to heat it back up. Once it hits about 93F (about 5 mins) I turn the dimmer back down and it floats to 99.5F every time.

 

[pfmoore17]

i like that 2 bulb idea!

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

In Mine to get around the temp fuctuating I have jars of water. I also use a dimmer switch and a 40 watt light bulb. My temps are normally steady as is the humiidty. My incubator is a coleman cooler and with out the jars of water the temp would fluctuate a lot. The Jars provide thermal mass to keep the temp steady.

 

[Chickenfarmer 1-2-b]

I too use two 40w bulbs in the Y-splitter socket, just in case one of them burn out when I am at work. I use the average size styrofoam container for the bator. Lights turn on for about 1 minute, then 9 minutes off, surprisingly pretty consistent. I actually sat there and timed it, too much time on my hands apparently, LOL. Whatever your set up is, test it and retest it before you set the eggs in there. I tried to adjust mine in the middle of the incubation, and it was just a mess.

 

[SophieLain127]

I was thinking of using a heating pad on the bottom with a pan of water on it, and a light clipped to the top. The eggs will be sitting on a shelf mid level.

 

[Chickenfarmer 1-2-b]

Not sure if the heating pad would be too hot causing too much water evaporation and humidity control issue. Worth a try though.

 

[SophieLain127]

I don't know I hope to get it built today or this weekend. It will be a partial open top, at least for now. I'll run it a few days to see if I can keep it a constant temp and humidity.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Instead of buying and playing with several different wattage bulbs I use a dim switch (about 5 bucks).

It can regulate output of a lightbulb or any other resistive load from 0-100% so you can finetune your heat source with great precision.

I also use a dim switch to control (lower) output of 250W infrared bulb used for brooding, since 250W bulb is too powerful (too hot) for indoor use unless you have several hundred chicks in really cold room.

It saves energy, allows fine adjustment, also it is safer since the bulb does not burn as hot as running full blast.

I could not hatch and brood birds without dim switches after I got spoiled by benefis of using them.

Just make sure you not overload it and always use ceramic sockets for safety!

 

[SophieLain127]

The dimmer is a good idea.