Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Chicken Chat => Topic started by: orchardlady on January 16, 2011, 16:37
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I've had a look at incubators on line Wowee aren't they expensive. I've also looked at the home made ones that are made of polystyrene boxes. Has anyone here had a go at making one and what was your hatch success, hints and tips. If I totally fail what would you recommend as the best all round incubator, small scale 8-24 eggs approx.
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I hope I dont get into trouble for this, but 1 of my Fb and Twitter friends has just built his own ....
http://blog.poultryathome.co.uk/2010/12/07/building-your-own-incubator/
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That's fine Hayley :)
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Phew, Thanks Aunt Sally :)
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i made my own last year it worked ok i did get one out of 12 hatch but it wasnt without its problems, the hardest thing i found was keeping the correct humidity. the temp was fine but the humidity was hard to control. i think i could have ironed out the problems but my other half bought me a proper incy as a suprise bithday pressy last year so the home made one was put on the shelf!
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Decent incubators aren't easy to make by amateurs unless you are skilled in electronics, mechanics, heat transfer and control engineering and handy with your hands. Being an electronics design engineer by profession I'm pretty well equiped and I wouldn't contemplate it. You also need a good deal of knowledge of hatching as well as electronics. There's a lot of trial and error to tune a design and it isn't as easy as it sounds. Turning and humidity control as well as having a suitable heat source are all challenging to achieve the sort of performance a good pro design will. I don't like the sound of these kits, polythene is very difficult to sterilise. A basic requirement of an iccy.
Anyone can make a box with a heat lamp in it but the results will be very dodgy. Save your pennies and buy a good incy from Brinsea or RCom. If you want to sell it after a couple of years (and no one wants to keep hatching long term unless they have unlimited space or a good market) they hold their value to a ridiculess extreme as they are always in great demand on ebay. Cheaper in the long run than hiring one or making one for that matter. Alternatively get a good broody such as a silkie or a bantam and do it the natural way.
HF