DIY Incubator: Questions

[ladybrasa]

Hello, thank you for looking! Long story short, I’ve become “chicken crazy” these last few months! (Not because of the pandemic, just happened to co-inside with it. Have had chicks on order since March, due later this month. Apparently I have been very impatient and Googling far too many chicken things, which led me to trying a DIY incubator. I have some shipped hatching eggs coming and hopefully get maybe a few hatchlings to add to the ones I ordered.

Anyhoo, I ended up using a clear storage container lined with ~1inch thick styrofoam sheets. Using two 25 watt bulbs on one side attached to a plug and play Inkbird thermostat. Have an ice cube tray underneath in case I need to add water for humidity. Attached a small (50 mm) computer type fan to a hardware cloth divider in front of the bulbs but up a little higher. I have a “viewing window” on a wide side - just a rectangle of space I cut out of the styrofoam and can see through the clear tote. I am planning on doing the tilt thing for turning the eggs, so I have two cut down egg cartons that hopefully are about 45 degree angled-just from eye-balling it as I don’t have a protractor. I cut the tote lid in half then taped with duck tape to sort of create a “hinge” so I’d only have to open one side when needed. I also did not cut any vent holes because the lid itself definitely isn’t air tight and i The temp is between 99-101 degrees Fahrenheit.

I’m not sure how the mechanics work for this forum, so I will post questions in a second post to be able to edit later (I’ve been on a forum where you couldn’t edit the first post).

Images are attached below. The eggs in there are just ceramic eggs to kind of test things out.

 

[Quailophilic]

You have all you need for hatching the eggs. Go ahead and put the eggs in there. I like your incubator.

 

[ladybrasa]

Questions (may be a bit ... noobish, sorry)

- I have the temp set between 99-101 Fahrenheit. I know ideal temp is 99.5-100. However I want to avoid a ‘disco ball’ effect from the bulbs flickering on and off constantly to try and maintain an exact temp. I can’t imagine the temp under a hen is spot on constantly. Is this going to be okay?

- Those ceramic test eggs ... could those possibly serve a heat sinks? Would heat sinks even be helpful in the set up?

- The humidity has been running in the 30s and 40s. Yesterday it dipped into the 20s. Is maintaining in the 30s and 40s okay? I guess this would be considered a dry hatch? For lock down, would I then add water to bring it to the 60s or so?

Thanks!

 

[ladybrasa]

Thanks, Quailophilic! I’m hoping the eggs I ordered will be shipped tomorrow and hopefully get here Wednesday.

 

[Quailophilic]

Questions (may be a bit ... noobish, sorry)

- I have the temp set between 99-101 Fahrenheit. I know ideal temp is 99.5-100. However I want to avoid a ‘disco ball’ effect from the bulbs flickering on and off constantly to try and maintain an exact temp. I can’t imagine the temp under a hen is spot on constantly. Is this going to be okay?

- Those ceramic test eggs ... could those possibly serve a heat sinks? Would heat sinks even be helpful in the set up?

- The humidity has been running in the 30s and 40s. Yesterday it dipped into the 20s. Is maintaining in the 30s and 40s okay? I guess this would be considered a dry hatch? For lock down, would I then add water to bring it to the 60s or so?

Thanks!

As long as your temperature is 99.5+/-0.5 F, you need not worry.
I dont think you need heat sinks. Again you need to just keep the temperature approximately constant.
Yes you can keep humidity at 40s. And during lock down you can lower temperature to 99F and keep humidity at 60-65. And everything should b fine as long as you keep on turning the eggs 4-6 times a day. Here is a turning schedule i made for my quail eggs.

 

[Quailophilic]

Thanks, Quailophilic! I’m hoping the eggs I ordered will be shipped tomorrow and hopefully get here Wednesday.

So keep your incubator switched ON. As soon as the eggs arrive let them come to room temperature and put them into the bator. Good luck

 

[Quailophilic]

Questions (may be a bit ... noobish, sorry)

- I have the temp set between 99-101 Fahrenheit. I know ideal temp is 99.5-100. However I want to avoid a ‘disco ball’ effect from the bulbs flickering on and off constantly to try and maintain an exact temp. I can’t imagine the temp under a hen is spot on constantly. Is this going to be okay?

- Those ceramic test eggs ... could those possibly serve a heat sinks? Would heat sinks even be helpful in the set up?

- The humidity has been running in the 30s and 40s. Yesterday it dipped into the 20s. Is maintaining in the 30s and 40s okay? I guess this would be considered a dry hatch? For lock down, would I then add water to bring it to the 60s or so?

Thanks!

And....... If you are having disco ball effect you can take out one bulb and check if a single bulb can maintain the right temperature. If a single bulb can do the job, you can take out the other one. And you have got a plenty of time to do that before the eggs arrive.

 

[Kiraeh]

This looks like a really good set up!

I have a bunch of sand in my diybator as a heat sink; I feel like it's helpful to regain normal temperature after I turn and it is a good slow-release moisture substrate. My incubator is really resilient(whether for that reason or another) and loses very little heat even when I spend several minutes with it open while I turn 25+ eggs. And having a heat sink costs you nothing.

Yeah, you'll want at least 60% for lockdown. Fool around with your set up now and figure out how to do that. How much water area do you need, how often does it need refilling. How quickly does it drop when you open it, how long does it take to right itself.
Dry incubation or not seems like a fairly personal, incubator/regional based thing. I ran mine dry, 25-35% and 60-70% at lockdown and it worked well for me
Make absolute sure that your fan does the job in evening out temperature. Test it after all the eggs are in, they'll change the circulation. My perfect with no eggs set up had a four degree gradient between one end and the other once eggs were in. Fixed and now its back under one and I can rotate eggs to make up for that.

For my current hatch I got an indoor/outdoor weather station with temperature alerts and I would recommend it for anyone with any incubator as a backup system. If your inkbird sensor falls into a cool spot, or anything else happens to spike your temperature, it'll warn you before you cook your eggs. And you can keep the display on your desk and have an eye on the eggs from anywhere in the house. I take mine to bed and check it when I wake up anxious.

I know you said you have a leaky lid and probably have enough ventilation and that's probably true, but hatch issues are already so hard to diagnose. If you have extra heat generating capacity, a small ventilation hole anywhere on the bottom of the incubator will guarantee sufficient ventilation and then you won't have to worry about that.

Wrap your bulbs in aluminum foil to reduce that disco effect, they'll still radiate heat but less light.

Last point: with the inkbird investment, this seems like a system you might want to use again. Plan for how you'll clean it, is there anything you can do now that'll help that? Styrofoam is notoriously hard to completely disinfect, if there's anywhere the hatching chicks will come into contact with it, can you put something down so that they won't, to protect your future hatches?

 

[Paterino Del Galaxia]

This might help since you're making use of electricity, blackouts or power surges can happen... I want to share this emergency DIY incubator build that you can use if the power/electricity goes out. Although this could also serve as a standalone incubator... This can serve as your second incubator!

Anyways, great incubator build!

 

[Quailophilic]

This

This might help since you're making use of electricity, blackouts or power surges can happen... I want to share this emergency DIY incubator build that you can use if the power/electricity goes out. Although this could also serve as a standalone incubator... This can serve as your second incubator!

Anyways, great incubator build!

a good backup incubator