Making a dedicated hatcher

[dheltzel]

I have a Sportsman cabinet incubator and want a separate hatcher so I can stop playing the "raise and lower humidity" game. I also think it's a big flaw of cabinet incubators that when you open the door, all the warm humid air dumps onto the floor and is replaced by dry air.

I think a hatcher should open at the top, with a sliding door to minimize turbulence when opening and closing. Needs to be easy to clean and sterilize too. With that in mind, an aquarium seems like the perfect starting point. I'm insulating the sides and bottom well and plan to add a movable front to insulate more. The main problem with glass sides is that you can't drill or attach anything (easily, anyway).

My concern is about air flow and ventilation:
How can I gauge whether the air exchange is adequate for the chicks (don't want them to suffocate)?
It seems like the internal air flow should be minimal, just enough to even the temperature, but avoiding the "blow dryer" effect I see in the incubator. Is that correct, or is a lot of air flow a benefit to the hatching chicks?

 

[WalnutHill]

If you use a 12v computer fan, you can use either a variable voltage power supply (sold at Radio Shack etc) or a lower voltage transformer to adjust the fan speed. You could get fancy and add a rheostat to reduce voltage (like a dimmer switch) but I have found that a computer fan driven by a 9v transformer is just about perfect for moving air without the blow dryer effect in a foam incubator.

If I had a larger incubator I'd use several fans running moderately slow rather than a single fan running high.

The chicks do need fresh air, especially as they hatch, so as long as some fresh air can mix into the airstream they should be fine. The air should not be stale to prevent respiratory issues.

 

[Strader]

In looking at R-values Glass is one of the worst things to use. You definitely will have to insulate, and glass on four sides only gives you two places to drill, cut, or modify. depending on your area that you live in the humidity drop can be different. where I live humidity is 32% to 40% on the average, so I built my Cabinet incubator out of 3/4 Melamine and its wonderful at holding temps and humidity drop is around 4% when I open it for a few minutes. I also used 3/8 lexan for door and don't seem to lose much heat. Lexan I believe isn't great at holding heat, but is the best rated of all plastics or glass. Bout a sheet off e-bay for $38.00. my cabinet only varies in humidity 3 % and temps are always within 3 tenths.

 

[dheltzel]

You are right that insulation is crucial with glass. That it not it's strong point, even the extent that I could build thermal mass on the outside of the tank and insulate on the outside of that, if I wanted. Still thinking about the amount of thermal mass I want to add. I could put several inches of water and a submersible heater under the egg rack, but I suspect that would jack the RHover 100 (JK - bad attempt at "math humor"). Anyway, I'm not sure I could control the humidity with water under the eggs, so I'm working on a rack that suspends the water tray above the eggs, which would be on the floor of the tank, or slightly elevated in baskets.

I have lots of surplus aquariums and submersible heaters from my last hobby. To the extent I could swap out tanks and keep a clean spare. Maybe I should build a wooden shell to slide the aquarium into, sort of a tank within a cabinet.

 

[Strader]

The thing about a Hatcher Is I dont think you'll be really opening it that much? (Once you add the eggs) and if you do open briefly it it should come up to proper humidity fairly soon if well insulated. Wouldnt you just pre heat, then add the eggs to the Hatcher for three days. Humidity between 65%-70%. A clear front or face is nice so you can see if something with chicks doesnt look right. Ive noticed that you can over worry and over tech something on here. Lots get worried with the fear mongering and technical talk of (lockdown) . My granparents hatched chicks in a shack with a cheasy heater and didnt know what a humidity gauge was. Whatever you build is going to beat that system.