Heating pad incubator

[ShrekDawg]

So I do plan on buying an incubator or making my own soon but I was wondering if you think it's possible to incubate eggs with a heating pad?

I know it's possible to brood chicks with one (you may have seen the MHP thread) but do you think it's possible to incubate eggs with it?

Either by setting the eggs on top of the pad (might not work very well?) Or making some sort of cave like with the MHP.

My thinking was that it might be kind of like a mama hen incubating them??

Do you think that's realistic or possible or not really?

Like I said, I do plan on buying or making one, but I was more just curious if my hypothetical idea would actually be possible haha

 

[peopleRanimals2]

I've never hatched chicks myself before, but from what I've read, no, it wouldn't work because along with keeping the eggs at the right temperature, you have to keep the whole egg warm, (which wouldn't be achieved by just placing them on the heating pad), and you have to regulate humidity and you have to rotate the eggs a specific way. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[peopleRanimals2]

But it is a cool theory

 

[questions543]

I've thought about this but personally thought it would just end up being impractical with having to turn the eggs and keeping the right humidity. Would be interested to see how someone did it if they tried and succeeded in this way!

 

[coloradowildflower]

I agree. I think the heat would be too directional. But stranger things have happened!

 

[gpop1]

I think it could be done but the trick would be calculating the internal egg temp. On a force incubator its easy as 99.5 air temp will eventually lead to a 99.5 internal temp. On a non force air incubator you set 101.5 at the top of the egg which should lead to a balanced temp inside the egg of 99.5. So in a cave built out of a heating pad you would probably need 100 degrees F at a guess.

If you put the heating pad cave inside a Tupperware box with a blanket under the box you would then have a insulated bottom, heated cave and the ability to contain humidity but absolutely no way to control the heat that may vary wildly between the front and rear of the cave. So a fan would be required plus a temp controller.

So what you are really building is a cooler-bator using a heating pad instead of a light bulb which would have been the easier one to build in the first place.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thanks for all the input everyone!! It would be an interesting experiment for sure but you are right, probably a lot of work haha