I have always wanted to incubate some chicken eggs but never had the time or equipment to do it. This year I decided that I just wanted to do it and I did a lot of reading. There’s a lot of ideas out in cyberspace on how to build your own incubator, but the most useful site for me was at Minnesota State University. The article is full of easy-to-understand information.
After doing as much research as I thought I needed, I shared some of the different designs that I found for making your own incubator with my husband since he was the one making it. The total cost to make our incubator: $0!!!!!
We used a small size styrofoam container with a lid. The inside of the container is big enough to hold one egg carton and a container for water. My husband found a basic household lightbulb socket with electric cord on it. He made a small hole on the inside of the cover to hold the bulb. Then he tacked is a small, household thermometer to the back of the inside of the incubator. On the outside, he cut a small piece of glass and then cut a hole in the side of the styrofoam and glued the glass into it. We also put in three ventilation holes on two sides of the styrofoam.
The biggest challenge we have found so far is that the temperature inside the container really fluxuates A LOT. We have a 7-watt light bulb on the inside, but sometimes the temperature will get up to 102-103F and then drop down to 96F.
I’m not sure how successful our attempt will be with the hatching of the eggs.
Stay tune! The eggs are due to hatch May 8th or 9th.
2012 Update:
We’re at it again! You can watch a video here on how we made our incubator and watch almost daily videos on incubating chicken eggs.
interesting! can’t wait to see how it goes. incubators are so expensive!