incubator bulb issues

[shan04]

Ok so I decided to build my own incubator out of a small cooler with a removable top, I put in a viewing window a bulb and a small fan from the fan replacement kit for a store bought incubator, a small shelf area and a container for water and sponges. all wiring it drilled through the cooler so I don't lose heat I also drilled 2 holes about half a inch around and inserted two pieces of plastic hose to let air in and out if needed, what my problem is the Humidity is great but the temp is way to high, I've tried a 60, 40, and 25 watt bulb and it stays over 108 and up degrees, does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to get the temp down to 100? I'm going to go try and find maybe a 10 or 15 watt bulb but didn't know if there might be any tricks I could try. I'm so anxious to get this thing up and running right.

 

[lazy gardener]

Shan, most people who build incubators use a thermostat. This will turn the bulb on/off to keep the temp at the desired range. Is your house temp stable and consistent? If you don't use a thermostat, you might try cutting to a 15W bulb, or you might try punching a few more holes in the side of the incubator closest to the bulb to allow more heat to escape. I think I'd go with the 15W first, simply b/c you might have difficulty keeping the humidity up for lock down, otherwise. IF your household temperature is extremely consistent, and will remain so during the 21 day incubation period, you might be successful. An other thing you might want to do is put some sealed water bottles in to act as heat sinks. If your house is a bit cooler at night, you might need to put a light blanket over it, or close up some ventilation. I'd suggest that you become very familiar with managing the temps in this box before committing to putting eggs in it. Good luck.

 

[shan04]

My house it's not consistent in the temps, I live in a very weather crazy state. I thought about a thermostat but wasn't wanting to spend a arm and a leg do you just wire it to the bulb? when I kept the current holes plugged the temp rises drastically but the Humidity stays perfect. I'll try a lower watt bulb if I can't get to 100 I'll try a thermostat next. I won't put my eggs in until everything is perfect, guess I'll just eat these and use the next round to hatch. Lol

 

[lazy gardener]

Shan, you can buy a thermostat from Incubator Warehouse for about $17 (plus shipping) You'll have to wire it in with the light bulb. You can find some tutorials on line that will show you exactly how to do it. Some people are using a hot water thermostat which costs about $8, but I think they need to do a bit more work to get it to be sensitive enough. I'd just spend the extra few bucks and use the bimetal one from IW. You might also find something that might suit your needs in the pet store where they have supplies for snakes and lizards.

 

[shan04]

This might be a dumb question but are you meaning just a regular home thermostat you use to control your home temps? I might have one of those laying around. The pet store suggestion is a good idea I never thought about looking for bulbs and stuff there.

 

[Fred's Hens]

A thermostat cuts the lights on and off. In mine, they're only on for about 10 seconds out of 60 minutes. Without a thermostat, the temperature is simply too inconsistent and will depend far too much about the ambient temperature of the room it is in. The average room may swing 20 degrees or more from cold early dawn to hot afternoon sunshine.


These thermometers are only $16 at Incubator's Warehouse.



If you look at YouTube, you'll find 5 or 6 videos by Rush Lane Poultry and he shows how to build foam incubators for around $35. He'll show you 3 or 4 different thermostats and build a working incubator from each of them. Generally, the more you pay, the tighter the performance. I think $16 is about as low as you can go and still have something that is going to actually work well enough to justify putting valuable eggs into.

Here's some photos of one of my builds. About $32 in them. They hatch chicks as well as my $130 incubator.
On this build, I used a "Y" to have two bulbs of slightly lower wattage. This worked better than a single bulb.
This one hold 36 eggs. If you look closely, you'll see I shielded the thermostat with some hardware cloth.



I found that a single pane of glass tended to fog during hatching. Glueing a piece on either side makes a double pane and the window no longer fogs up.



I bore three or four 1/2" holes in the lid for vents. I use soft foam ear plugs to plug a few until they need to be open during hatching.




Here was a build that located the fan on the side. I have since located them to the lid for move even air distribution.
You can see the thermostat mounted right next to the light. This is the preferred location. It needs to be within 3" to work best.









These plastic wall anchors allow you to mount things in styrofoam. Use Gorilla glue or similar and allow to dry overnight. Then you can run a screw into the anchor and mount thermostats, shields, fans, hardware cloth grills, light fixtures, etc.








These are simply computer fans. $4. You run them with cell phone charger or similar. Typically, the cell phone is only 5volt output. I prefer a bit more speed. I search re-sale stores or my junk drawer for one that is slightly higher volt output, like 9.6 volt output. That spins the fan at just about the right speed to my taste.

I also use rubber washers or bushing to stand the fan off the surface 1/4". These fans won't really work it they are mounted flush. They need some "stand offs" to allow the air to move. Mount the fan blowing up, not down onto the eggs.

 

[lazy gardener]

No, not a home thermostat. If you go to Incubator Warehouse, and check out the incubator thermostats, you'll see several designs. there's the wafer, that is a round disk, and there's a cheaper bi metal one that looks like 2 pieces of metal hinged together in the middle, with wire clips on the end so you can wire it into your heat source. If you have the confidence to wire a lamp, you can do this. If you're not comfortable with it, perhaps you have a electronic geek friend who would be willing to do it for you.

 

[shan04]

Man wish mine looked that professional. Awesome, guess I'll have to see what I can do.

 

[shan04]

Well I wired my light bulb and fan cause I had to cut the cords to slip Then through the cooler. If I can do that I'm sure I can wire that. Thanks for your help

 

[lazy gardener]

Yeah, Shan, Follow Fred's lead! You can do it, and when you're done, you'll have an incubator that you made yourself that works better than a Styrofoam model that would cost about $100.

Last weekend, I picked up a dorm fridge at the dump. I have everything else needed to turn that into a multi shelf incubator, then I'll have my old one for a hatcher! Not that I ever intend to hatch that many eggs, but you never know what might happen down the road!!!