How to make a home made incubator

[RedThorn]

This incubator is made out of a polystyrene Box which is used for transporting Tropical and marine fish (ask at your local tropical fish shop) with a reptile heat pad stuck to the lid (a 12 watt unit). It is half full with vermiculite and has a RH meter and thermometer(reptile thermometer as you need to read to 38-40 deg) attached to the side. bury 2 x 500ml pop bottles in the vermiculite to give you a consistent temp over night and when you open the lid (I will do this going forward) 2 small dishes with water in it for the RH and if the RH readings are a bit low, sprinkle a bit of water on the vermiculite

All in all I am happy with this incubator. The only thing I think would be better is if it had a viewing portal, but that is not necessary.

[Snadger]

Is there no thermostat or fan RedThorn? Like the vermiculite idea though!

I put wood shavings in mine and the fan blows them all over!

Surely a viewing portal would be easy to cut out with a hot knife and covered with a bit of perspex!

[RedThorn]

Nope no thermostat Snadger. It worked a treat. It could quite easily be modified to include a thermostat though. Found that just monitoring, it was fine on the cooler nights, just made sure the windows and the doors were closed to keep the ambient up a bit. and the mat new only cost £10 on special

[snakeshack]

I have an incubator made out of an old cooler box with a heat mat taped to the side and a habistat proportional thermostat.I use it to hatch snake and lizard eggs which I place in plastic boxes with damp vermiculite in for the humidity,reptile eggs need no turning,what would i need to know to hatch chicks as this is out of season for all the reptiles i keep & I thought I might try some chook eggs.
Eg temperature ,humidity,turns per day etc

[bluemoon]

This ia brilliant, Red Thorn. I don't understand the pop bottles though. What exactly do you do with them? I'm really pleased that it worked for you and I'm tempted to have a go myself.

[RedThorn]

BlueMoon - The pop bottles are filled with water and capped. This is to give a more constant temp when you open the lid Kind of like a heat sink like painted black bricks in a greenhouse...

SnakeShack - This incubator is based on a cold blooded incubator. To adapt, I just marked the eggs with a "O" on one side and a "X" on the other and twice a day I turned the eggs so the "X" was up during the day and the "O" was top during the night. when I turned, I checked the temp and RH and dampened some vermiculite if the RH was low. during one check, the temp was a bit low, so I put a fleece blanket over the incubator as a little bit more insulation and then kept the doors and windows closed in the room.

It is Ideally too late in the season for chicks and now I will have to keep the chicks warm for longer before taking them off the heat but heyho, I was impatient

[Hilary B]

I got hold of a heating element with built in thermostat, in the form of a loop of what looked rather like thin walled plastic hosepipe. There were 'ties' to attach it to the corners of the box (a similar box to the one shown) and I placed a weldmesh 'shelf' right across about 4 inches below the top of the box, the element hung half-way between the shelf and the top, and I put 2 small water dishes (about the diameter of a jam jar) in the base. The lid had a hole cut for viewing, and covered on both sides with thin acryllic 'glass' (the sort that will just about roll up) to double-glaze it.
It was long enough ago that I can no longer remember exactly, but I think I got just under 80% hatch from turkey eggs (own turkeys, Norfolk Blacks).
Because most people can't be sure of turning at 12 hour intervals, the usual recommendation is to turn 3 times a day, so that if 'overnight' is a bit longer, they will alternate which side is up for the long interval.

[MaureenHall]

As usual, I probably go overboard "doing stuff", so when I'm incubating eggs, I turn them 5 times a day! Has to be an odd number so they aren't on the same side for the long period during the night. 3 times a day is just as effective though I think. It's easy for me though being at home all day, for people out at work, turn first thing in the morning, as soon as you get home then last thing at night

[davefromthechipie]

RT If you had said about that incub before you had hatched , id of said no chance My sis used to breed bearded dragons and all her incubator gear cant go past 30 C as reptiles is about 27 to 29 C .What did you do to get the temp up to 37 and stable with one of the rep thermostats???

[RedThorn]

I did not have a thermostat in mine Dave. Just monitored a few times a day