AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Now, this may seem like a series of silly questions considering I've already built an incubator that proved relatively successful...but...

How would YOU build an incubator?

I want to discuss stuff like fan location, heat location, heater cords/cables/pads vs incandescent light globes, racks, turning mechanisms and/or procedures...oh and maybe ventilation.

I want to discuss the pros and cons of such placements.

I want to discuss YOUR experiences, rather than just my limited experiences (so far).

And, I want to see detailed photos of people's incubators, especially bought ones that work. ** I have seen only a few incubator photos in the photo gallery.

Why am I interested in your ideas?

I'm going to turn a bar fridge into an incubator and don't want to make too many changes after I've done it.

I have a bunch of used lamps that I can get the battens (or whatever those bulb holder things are called in your house) from so light bulbs are a choice that won't require additional expense.

Similar to the current setup of my styrofoam incubator, if using light bulbs, I'll put them up one end (or the top or bottom if standing up...or top AND bottom) with fan/s blowing the air around through the compartment.

If using heat cords/cables or mats, I'd put them wherever. Let's discuss that one.

** This forum allows photos under certain circumstances, but I'm not sure posting them so we can just look at them quite meets the criteria. The closest I could find in the rules was... "General Help Photos (needing help with Cages, Boxes, ect.. Generally asking a question related to the Photo posted) "

I'm a visual person. If I can "see" how something is done, I can kind of work out how I could replicate it.

For example, as I recall, the rack in Ian's 100 egg incubator is a piece of strong mesh, not unlike aviary mesh. When I used snake/mouse mesh which had been on a roll it curled and it seemed a little too flexible.

I'm thinking I will need to do two things:
1. Use two pieces together for strength
2. Somehow flatten the rack by putting it under something heavy or bending it...or...(any ideas anyone?)

I also need other ideas for egg racks. I always worry about the eggs being on a flat surface they may roll into one another during turning and/or they may not sit well enough re. big end up high enough. That's why I liked the rice so much and I am still so tempted to whack those baskets back in to my styrofoam incubator. I had successful hatches from eggs which had sat in the bed of rice. (Note: They didn't sit deep in the rice. It was just a support.)

HI Greenaus,

I have taken photos of my incubator even though I bought it. It may give people some ideas. Just waiting for approval.

The egg tray is removeable but best left there if your want to use auto turn. I can also take out the egg tray and put little plastic dividers in. The grey plate underneath is the turning tray. It works by just moving sideways about half a turn of the egg. When it gets to the other side it moves back again in installments.

All the electronic and sponges are within the case. Only downfall as I have said is that you have to pull the hole thing apart to get at the sponge and it is incline to dryout on the top half of the sponge so the humidity is not as effective.

http://paforumphotogallery.com/displayi ... ?pos=-2050
http://paforumphotogallery.com/displayi ... ?pos=-2049

I made an embarrassingly small incubator last week (all the budget would allow) ... set my first lot of eggs in it on Tuesday, so we'll see. So far, though, it seems to be holding its temp fine, so fingers crossed.

It's based on the design found at http://www.cyberquail.com/incubators.html. Biggest outlay was the thermostat; I bought a half price smashed lamp from Crazy Clark's and salvaged the socket and power cord, which I set in the lid of a small styrofoam eski (about $3.50 at the supermarket) which has a few vent holes drilled in it. The end of the thermostat sensor is set at the mid-point of the eggs, and there is a mercury kitchen thermometer in there at the same point, and a container of water. I made a viewing window in the side of the eski with some glass from a photo frame. The eggs are just sitting on the base of the eski; I made a few small indentations in the foam to hold them steady.

As I said, embarrassingly small, and a far cry from the grand design I really wanted to build, but it will do for now. When I can manage it I'll upgrade to a bigger eski that will allow me to fit a fan in. It's too early to know if this one is going to work, and I think I only have one viable egg anyway (the others came out of the garden and they don't look good). Time will tell, I guess.

Hi Greenaus,

I use an E2, which is a cabinet incubator so there might be some ideas you can use for a fridge adaptation. The heat and fan is in the top and the turning trays in the front cabinet. Not sure how to post links here so I'll try this link to my photobucket album and see if it works:

http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee13 ... Medium.jpg

The top of the cabinet has a lift up lid with a bit of seal around it - no hinge. When you lift it up inside looks like this. Fan on right hand side, blowing over trays of water. The whole metal shelf is attached so that there is about a couple of inches gap for the air to blow downloads - gap on both right hand and left hand side of cabinet, although fan is positioned to blow it to the left.
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee13 ... esize1.jpg

The left side of the cabinet has a little hole with a tube poking through and a cup on the outside. This allows the water to be refilled without opening the top lid. I have poked extra thermometers etc in to check temp at different positions around the cabinet, but you don't really need those.
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee13 ... esize2.jpg

Right side has another vent hole - I've just got another thermostat in there, which I don't need, but just like to check. The cabinet is so big that I was curious about how the air flow would be going.
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee13 ... esize3.jpg

Next is inside the incubator looking upwards on the left - you can see the cap where the heated air is being blown through. You can just see a little of the top plastic egg tray.
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee13 ... esize4.jpg

Lastly the right inside view looking up. Not much there, but there is a gap about on inch wide. It seems to be necessary for ongoing circular air movement even though the air is being blown down from the opposite side.

http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee13 ... esize5.jpg

The bottom hatching trays are pretty straight forward so I haven't taken any pics. They are just wire box trays that slide in on two guides just off the bottom. Underneath them is a flat tray that collects any mess that falls through the holes in the box trays.

Hope this is helpful. The systems seems to work better than any of the foam incubators that I've had. The fan is quite a big one as you can see. Overall the most temp difference I can find inside the cabinet is one degree. The outside theremometer pokes through a hole (inside one of the right angle ones) and you can read it on the front. Once it's set and going I never mess with it. It measures the temp of the air just after it blows through the gap.

Good luck with your fridge project. I'm looking to do one of those myself soon.

Thanks for the input so far and for the photos and links.

Rosemarie, I learned a bit about turning from your photo and also from a YouTube video I watched on the weekend. Basic physics (or whatever science it is) tell us how to do it, but we rarely think about it.

1. If you keep the eggs in the same place, but move what's under them, they roll over; or
2. If you have them in narrow trays, and move those over a static surface, the eggs will roll.

These methods may not produce an even roll for each egg every time, but since it is quick, I could do it several times a day increasing the likelihood that each egg gets it's fair share of rotation.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYLm3SK_vRE

Thanks Eggsalive so very much for taking the time to take and post all those pics. They were extremely helpful because it showed me what a successful incubator looks like inside. I assume they're successful or they wouldn't cost so much.

I was particularly pleased to see how with just one fan carefully located at one side of the heating area and a gap on the other side, there was obviously enough air flow to ensure even temperatures throughout the incubator.

Does the fan stop when you open the incubator?

I need to work out how to turn it off without forgetting to turn it back on again. Maybe I could use a switch setup similar to a car door, but turning the fan ON when the door closes.

Please everyone, I beg of you, keep the ideas and stuff coming.

Let's discuss incubators inside out.

Thanks,


Charles

Greenaus, the fan in the E2 never stops. You can open at the top and muck around with water levels etc in the trays, but the fan continues. It's a bigger fan than your regular computer fan. I wouldn't worry about working out how to turn it off. Why would you need to? When you open the front door it keeps going also. This size fan keeps the air moving around the cabinet very well. I've measured at different places inside the cabinet and there is a difference of half a degree between top and bottom. This means it's great to put goose eggs down the bottom. Mind you, all eggs I've had in here hatch extremely well with little help from me. I just fill the trays and turn the handle. I haven't altered the thermostat in six months. It's just too easy.

I actually think there is a switch somewhere inside the top of my cabinet which manually turns my fan off, but I've never used it. I would be concerned about an on/off automatic switch, because I've found that turning electrical things on and off causes the switches to go much more frequently. I should probably have a spare fan here in case of disaster and I haven't at the moment. I have spare bulbs, but no fan. The good thing about bulbs in this model is that they are two of them. They are both supposed to be 200W, but I've replaced them with 150W (electricity bill!) and it still works fine. I have some backup 200W ones in case of extremely cold weather. When a globe blows I've always noticed it in time and not lost any hatchlings.

The other thing that worries me at the moment is the fact that I have only cleaned this incubator out twice in the last 10 months. So far hatching continues fine, but I wonder how long I'll get away with it. It hasn't been off long enough to do it. I've always got a couple of hundred eggs in there in staggered batches. I try to scrub individual trays when they come out, and the hatching basketcs as well. I lose track of when the individual trays are due to hatch, so I keep the bottom of the cabinet vacuumed out, and when I see egg chips there I know something has pipped. Not a very scientific approach - but seems to work.

Thanks again. Really good explanations and very helpful.

When I first started this topic I was going to be turning a bar fridge into an incubator. I now have a big Kevatron scientific incubator that may not work as originally intended. I got it at a good price though. I may use that as the base for a bigger, better incubator.

Didn't the Kevatron work?