working on our homemade bator!!!!!!!!

[bethandjoeync]

Well once one of our girls decided to go broody, we started thinking of an incubator. I didn't really want to buy one, and had to convince DH that we would be better off building one from the junk that we have around here. so we got started for about $40 in initical costs for the thermostat, hygrometer, insulation, odds and ends. we were planning on taking about my son's chestofdrawers anyways because all the drawer guides were practically broken anyways and would close properly. so we stacked two drawers and glued them together. it's pretty much the size of the "cooler bators" that I have seen.

then we lined it with foil covered styrofoam and installed the thermostat

made a lid with windows for a view

it works!!

working with temp to make sure everything is functional!

we still need a few things; a wiggler and another themometer so it doesn't take the one I use from the kitchen, and 40 watt bulbs

we found that the 60 kept it too hot the 34 wasn't enough and the 52 was almost it but just slightly on the hot side (around 102-ish) I think the 40 will do the trick!

of course we will test it for AT LEAST 24 hours before attempting to add any eggs in there, but we hope by this weekend we will have some in there

 

[chickenlittle32]

Please forgive me if you mentioned already...but do you plan on putting a fan? It will help circulate the air around it...

 

[Barred Rocker]

Quote:
Or is it a still air? I tried putting a computer fan in my homemade still air bator last year and I couldn't get the temp and humidity to level out so I had to leave it out.

 

[bethandjoeync]

my fault, I didn't even list the stuff we already had to put in there lol

-yes we are using a computer fan, but I am wondering how was can get it to run a bit slower (we have it on a 9 volt power cord, and the lowest around the house that I could find was 8.7v)
-we had a few lamps that are pretty much trash (60's style hideous) that are working great! now just trying to figure out the right wattage that will work and keep things constant
-we also had the hinges for the lid and so on

no I need to seal the air leaks, because I can't seem to get my humidity unless i stuff then lid edges with a blanket then it definitely goes up.

also, any tips on getting the themostat to get a smaller range of high and low cut on/off??? this one is too much

 

[chickenlittle32]

If I may ask, what are the dimensions of your incubator?

 

[bethandjoeync]

Quote:
good question, let me find a tape measure and I will get back to you in a minute

i would say ROUGHLY (couldn't even find a ruler to measure:/) 12 in x 24 in x 18 in(height) I think it reminds me of the coolers that people use, it seems to be that size, maybe a little bigger. but of course the walls are 1/2 in thick then at the insulation foam and the inside is much smaller.

 

[bethandjoeync]

i am starting to wonder if we need to move the themostat to a different position, maybe it isn't getting the right reading because of the fan or because it is so close to the bulbs?? I would hate to go drilling a bunch of holes trying to find out

 

[fonemanII]

I used double sided sticky tape to temporarily attach my thermostat until a permanent place was found.

 

[bethandjoeync]

we read on one of the incubator pages, that you need to have the thermostat on some metal to get a better reading because (duh to us!) it is not meant for ambient air temp, it is to take a reading of the metal sides of the water heater. so we are looking around for some scrap metal that we could put behind it to help it read better. right now my temp range for it to cut on the light is 95 and to cut off the light is 104. that is WAY too much!! so hopefully we can get this evened out, and down to a better/smaller fluctuation range.

 

[bethandjoeync]

i think our hygrometer is off. we did the salt water test and it read 68% after 12 hours, but this was in the evening when it was colder than during the day when it read 72%. should I just try it again? for a 3rd time