Wine Cooler Incubator / Hatcher Done & I have a pip**UPDATE** 3 SILKIE

[Seeing Silkies]

I thought I would post here since I can not get pic's to show in my page ( no matter what i do I get a red x and no title ?) I bought a Octagon 20 LOVE IT...Well I bought some shipped eggs & had some of my own, Then more eggs = Stagered Hatch

I could not just go buy another Octagon 20 SO I went on the hunt for a MAKE YOUR OWN INCUBATOR ITEM and gathered all the info I could on how to make one my self ( from this site ) This was a fine working wine cooler I got off of CL for 30.00 Can i make it work?

So we took out the motor & all the other stuff in the back,There wasa panel on the back wall that covered the holes for the old wires, We took that out to have 1 hole for our wires & 1 vent.

Next I bought a hot water heater thermostat & a light socket - Take 1 wire in the cord, strip an area and attach each end to the screws on the hot water heater thermostat.
we mounted it were the old light was and put the wire through that hole

I bought dollar store baskets, 2 sets for day 1 to day 18, and 2 sets for lock down, 3/4 inch PVC & Glue & shelf linner

I bought a small fan it is mounted top the top in the corner, we put that wire throught one of the old holes.

I kept all of the old wine shelf's I zip tied a HARD plastic netting to the to make them flat shelf's But air can flow well.

It took a day of playing with the hot water heater thermostat I ended up putting it about an inch from the light bulb, That will vary depending on the siz of the space you are trying to control
It is keeping it 99.5 to 100.6 the light comes on @ 99.5 & shuts off at 100.6 - It holds the heat well, about every 5 min it will come on for a min

I placed my water bowl right under the light bulb, I use a smaller bowl to keep it @ 45% humidity & a larger bowl to keep it @ 75% humidity PLUS by putting the bowl under the light, it will block any stright heat from getting to the eggs ( if there is any? if i could ony fit inside & shut the door ))

and with the door shut this is what it looks like

PVC was scraps from something FREE
Hard plastic was off of a old ca unit FREE


Wine cooler 30.00
water heater thermostat 10.00
Light Socket 4.00
4 sets of baskets 5.00
Shelf linner 2.00
Small Fan 10.00
Zip ties 3.00
75 watt ligt bulb 1.50
______________
TOTAL $65.50


Temp & Humidity gages 20.00 I have 3 in it right now Just to be safe... But you need to buy them with most incubators on the market any way

so I am not adding that in my cost

I ran it for 3 day's I wanted it to be safe, Well I moved The 1st batch of 10 eggs in to it sunday night for lock down on day 19 - Today is day 20 ( early am ) & I have a pip

I will say it was not as hard as I thought it would be, it will hold a lot of eggs I can see every thing

If I could do it any one can do it, I will post pic's of the hatch, I pray it will keep going good

 

[Seeing Silkies]

as it is today with 1 pip

The wait is killing me

 

[cityslickers]

a pip

 

[missfire]

Do you have the fan running all the time or does it come on with the light to circulate the heat. I also am in the process of getting some large Dorm/Apartment frig's to make 1 into an incubator and 1 into a hatcher. Thanks

Dan

 

[Seeing Silkies]

Quote:
The fan runs 24/7 it was just a small desk top fan on a base & you could turn up & down, so we mounted it to the top and pointed it tords the light, put the plug out through a old hole & pluged it in.. So we have 2 plugs one for the light & one for the fan, we have them pluged in to a serge protector... Just in case - I was iffy about the cut wires to the light.. BUT all has gone well & it been on for about 5 days now.

 

[iluvsedward]

Nice

 

[Seeing Silkies]

I had 10 Silkie & show Girl eggs to start with, all eggs were growing well as of day 18 when I put them in for lock down, Well I think for now on my lock down day will be @ 17 days. I had 1 pip by 7 am yestrday and then another pip a few hours later & then nothing, I could see the some of eggs moving around but no new pip or any zip, There were peeping so I watched & watched... at midnight the peeps stoped.... So I know alot will say I should not of but I did, I helped, I started with the 2 that were pip, They were DRY in side ( I had it at 75% ) so I start to chip away the shell & made sure they could get air, There was a tad bit of blood on the 1 so I stopped and put a wet paper towel on the spot, then went to the other one, he pip at at about noon yester day, it was 2 am at this point, so I started to chip away the shell no blood at all, so I chipped & made the zip for it put a wet paper towel around it and put it back, with in a 1/2 hour this chick was out by its self and doing great ( even got out of my basket ), so I started to check the other eggs... long story short 4 of the 10 eggs were dead in the shell, The other 4 were pip by me & zipped by me and I put a wet paper towel around them, 1 has hatched out by its self.... The 1st eggs I helped till I seen blood is also out. My baskets are to low, even for silkie chicks because they go over the edge and were on the shelf, so they are no in a bin with a heat light, They were peeping so much in the bater, it must of been to hot.
so I have 3 chicks out and under a heat light 3 more that I am waiting to see if they can do it on there on with my zip.

I now feel bad that i did not do something sooner, maybe the 4 would not of past.

I will post pic's later to day & hope to have a group of 6

Time for a nap.