With the hot temp of Summer....

[Shamo Hybrid]

wouldn't it work to just put eggs into a hot shed or garage and have the eggs hatched on their own? And when at night into the morning, you could maybe heat up a few water bottles and wrap them all up with some towels to retain heat until the baking sun reappears next morning? While rummaging through the garage and shed looking for some stuff, I thought to myself, so this is how an egg feels like sitting in an incubator....... and then a light came on, how bright it is I don't know, hehehe. I feel like I want to experiment this just for fun to see if an egg or two will actually hatch and use an incubator for the rest of the eggs. Feels like we've had over 100 degree weather now ever since April and weather doesn't seem to be coming down anytime soon, it's still at least high 90's here.

But if I'm stupid for even suggesting such silly things, too bad, you just wasted 30 seconds of your life reading this!

 

[KikiLeigh02]

There would be a few problems with it, the biggest being temperature swings especially from day to night. Even keeping the incubator in a room that has varying temperatures can mess up your hatch. Have you read through this thread?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-eggs-101.64195/
It's a little overwhelming because there is LOTS of information & links, but it is super helpful!

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

There would be a few problems with it, the biggest being temperature swings especially from day to night. Even keeping the incubator in a room that has varying temperatures can mess up your hatch. Have you read through this thread?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-eggs-101.64195/
It's a little overwhelming because there is LOTS of information & links, but it is super helpful!

Hmmm..... would it make more sense then to incubate your eggs in a shed? It would already be right near where the magic 99-100 degree Fahrenheit temperature would be, thus being able to maintain and keep temp without excessive fluctuations?

 

[KikiLeigh02]

If you have a shed that will stay at 99-100 degrees 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 21 days straight go for it! The temperature in our buildings (1 attached garage, 1 detached garage, 1 shed) fluctuate quite a bit depending on the outside temp. The attached garage has the most stable temps because it's fairly well insulated for our home canned goods, but it still varies way more that what would be considered stable enough to incubate eggs. If I really had the itch to experiment with hatching eggs I would try making a homemade incubator and testing it against a purchased one.

 

[glory101]

That is actually similar to how my hen Lioness has done it. Last year she had babies in July and she was hardly on the nest at all during the day (she nested in an old tire against a shady wall...). She did pop in now and then to turn them, and slept on the nest at night. The nighttime changes would be my biggest worry. I would never try to replicate this myself; she knew exactly when she needed to get back to them and I think I’d mess it up and kill the babies. She had eleven babies.