I have noticed how well my hens incubate and hatch their eggs and have wished I could have the same success in an incubator. It may be because I live in a humid area, but I have a hard time getting eggs to loose enough moisture during incubation.
I thought it would be cool to make an incubator that mimicked a broody hen and sat on top of the eggs. I tried to research contact incubators and only found one by Brinsea that costs thousands of dollars. Yikes! I thought about making the contact portion inside a box, like Brinsea but then came up with this design to make for a very large broody that might be able to hatch larger eggs.
I started some eggs under this incubator a couple months ago but had to borrow the thermostat to hatch my emu eggs in another incubator, so I finished those eggs in a different incubator and they did all hatch which was impressive for my Serama eggs.
I have made all of my incubators, a few in styrofoam coolers and a cabinet incubator. I think it is almost as fun to make incubators as it is to hatch eggs. I cut down the tiny cooler I used as my very first incubator and put it inside a rubbery bag. It has two 40watt light bulbs on a thermostat that is atop the eggs, under the bag. I made a sort of armature out of pool noodles to to keep space over the eggs. Yes, I used what I had laying around, in true DIY fashion.
This will be my first attempt at a full incubation under the "Electric Hen", so wish me luck! I set 6 Silkie eggs under her this evening. I'll update with progress and plan to transfer the eggs to my hatcher at day 18.
I thought it would be cool to make an incubator that mimicked a broody hen and sat on top of the eggs. I tried to research contact incubators and only found one by Brinsea that costs thousands of dollars. Yikes! I thought about making the contact portion inside a box, like Brinsea but then came up with this design to make for a very large broody that might be able to hatch larger eggs.
I started some eggs under this incubator a couple months ago but had to borrow the thermostat to hatch my emu eggs in another incubator, so I finished those eggs in a different incubator and they did all hatch which was impressive for my Serama eggs.
I have made all of my incubators, a few in styrofoam coolers and a cabinet incubator. I think it is almost as fun to make incubators as it is to hatch eggs. I cut down the tiny cooler I used as my very first incubator and put it inside a rubbery bag. It has two 40watt light bulbs on a thermostat that is atop the eggs, under the bag. I made a sort of armature out of pool noodles to to keep space over the eggs. Yes, I used what I had laying around, in true DIY fashion.
This will be my first attempt at a full incubation under the "Electric Hen", so wish me luck! I set 6 Silkie eggs under her this evening. I'll update with progress and plan to transfer the eggs to my hatcher at day 18.
