DW has been itching to hatch some new chicks from our flock, but none of our hens have gone broody long enough to hatch any. We decided to try and make a homemade incubator out of an old styrofoam cooler we have laying around. It has no lid and a big chunk taken out of one side, but we figured we'd give it a shot. We can always get a new cooler cheap if we need to. After reviewing some websites on homemade incuabators, this is what I came up with. (99% of this is taken from other people, so don't be impressed with my ingenuity)
I cut some hardware cloth and shaped it to create a raised floor to put the eggs on. A pan of water is put underneath it to maintain proper humidity.
Next I wired a lamp socket to a thermostat and mounted them to the side of the cooler. The thermostat will cycle the light on and off, keeping it as close to 99.5 degrees F as possible.
Next, I wired a small fan for a computer CPU to a transformer and mounted it. The fan circulates the air throughout the incubator for more even heating. This turns the incubator into a "forced air" type instead of a "still air" type. Forced air incubators have better hatch rates.
Lastly I added a digital thermometer and bag of water. The digital thermometer is a cheap one from Walmart that measures inside and outside temperature and humidity. The probe for the outside temp will be placed in between the folded over water bag. The temperature of the water bag best simulates the temperature inside of the eggs, which is the one we care about the most.
Since we don't have a top for this cooler, I cut a top from plywood. I also cut a small viewing window and covered that with plexiglass.
I have no idea if this will work, but it's worth a try. We tested it and found the setting that holds the water bag within one degree of 99.5 degrees. The thermostat cycles on and off just like it should. When we have enough we'll add eggs and wait 21 days. We tested its capacity and it will hold 17-18 eggs.
I'll post again when we've set our eggs.
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