Thanks again, Dana. I have found several hatching eggs on eBbay, I have added them to my watch list and in the mean time I am attempting to build me an incubator! I have all of the materials, just need to stop long enough to build it. I am making one out of plywood, etc - - - what do you have your eggs sitting on inside of the incubator? I know that by May we will NEED some guineas to control our hoppers! Do you also trade/sell your guinea eggs? Have a great weekend!
A homemade egg incubator........maybe.
Texas for the floor of incubator well what the eggs sit on is wire quarter by quarter small mesh wire so when they hatch you don't want them breaking there legs. It was 27 degrees here this morning ! for central florida thats real cold and very bad for the plants. Just when you get spring fever you always get this to set you back a little hope everyone has a good weekend and stay warm.
Dana, thanks for sharing your information and tips with me. I have got to post a picture of my new coop and my new incubator.........DH & I just finished it up tonight and we're checking out the temp/humidity levels. I hope to bid on some eggs tomorrow and then I'll be in business!
27 in Florida is BRRRRRR cold, Dana! Whew! We too have had a terrible blast of cold this week, it was 13 Thursday morning and man, it was COLD for us! My poor baby bulbs and tender perennials had already started coming up and that certainly nipped them a bit! Well, maybe that was the last tremendous cold front for us and hopefully for you too. I am SO ready for Spring - - - talk about Spring fever, I have it BAD! :) Hope that you too have a great weekend!
Belinda
Texas heres a little truth about getting eggs from the mail the post office randomly xrays the boxes and if there coming from cold country you might not do so well. What exactly are you looking for. We have had broken crushed non fertile eggs cost me alot of money to get my starts. I have been hatching chicks all winter long. Alot of bantams, different chickens like I said guineas won't lay until may. I sell my eggs on ebay because I have so many thats just Guineas and turkeys the chickens I don't turkeys are laying now. Let me know Dana
Dana,
I would love to try some turkey eggs, type is not of importance to me yet. What type turkeys do you have available right now? Thanks for the tip of truth about eggs, being new to all of this I need all the help I can get. Also, would it be easier for you to dmail or email me instead of us tracking back to this thread? lol If so, my email addy is: bkstarnes@earthlink.net. I appreciate the offer!
Belinda
I use to have an incubator but it's been quite a few years since I loaned it out...lol. I am thinking of ordering some turkey eggs to try to hatch and am looking at building a makeshift incubator from a styrafoam cooler. What I want to know is what kind of fan would I buy to put in it... Obviously something small and I think I read somewhere to get plastic but I haven't started looking around yet. I went to the cyberquail link and it has a fan but I don't think it was specific... I will have to re-read.
Just curious of those who have made their own incubators successfully how you did the "air movement" to keep it a level heat.
Thanks for the info...
~Julie =0)
Julie,
I used a PC fan for my air movement in the incubator. You can get them at any Radio Shack, Staples, Office Depot, etc. Simply wired it into the electrical source and it seems to be the perfect amount of air for my 12 X 16 bator. My humidity level stays pretty consistently at 58%. Hope this helps you some.
Belinda
Hhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm well I have a pc that had thermal failure last summer. I replaced the fan with a brand new one but then had other issues and just replaced the entire pc. I suppose I could snatch it out of there, but as I recall it was pretty big. I'd have to pull it out and look at it and see if I could figure out how to wire it in....
Thanks for the suggestion !!
~Julie =0)
Julie,
My fan is only a 3x3 in size..............all plastic. As for the wiring, just hook your red/positive to the coordinating electrical source and you should be good to go! Keep me posted on how it goes!
Good luck!
Belinda
leannex
May 28, 2008
im hatching silkie chicks (eggs) i dont no if a homemade incubator will work ? will it ? do they ruin ur garden ? ????????????????????
leanne
I Made a homemade incubator from an old styrofoam box our vet clinic gets it's meds shipped in. I added the light bulb and a $5 desk fan from Dollar General. I put the water in an aluminum cake pan and lay hardware cloth on top of that with the eggs on it. I got my humidity and temperature thermometer at Wal-mart for $5 (they are by the alarm clocks). Total spent is around $20.00.
So far I have hatched 37 chicks in three different batches and now have 36 in for the forth hatch. I really love hatching out the eggs.
Now what to do with all the chicks, LOL
Sheila
yes, leanne, i think a homemade incubator shoul dwork just fine. you ned a thermometer and wither a wet or dry hygrometer [humidity indicator], since the most importatn things are air circulation, temperature, and relative humdity.
can't wait to see how your silkie eggs come out. some of us here call them peeps until they hatch ^_^
tf
Oh gosh I have a fever now. Will be making me a bator now, I have read up on it and was like well that went right over my head but the way you have explained it, gosh a middle grade school kid can do this.
Thanks for all the info and a shamelss bump of this thread. Very interesting reading here.
You'll have to let us know how it goes L2G....if you build one. I read this thread not too long ago and found it very interesting. My DH is kicking around the idea of rigging up an old refrigerator as an incubator. A small dorm one at first and then if that works, a big one. Has anyone ever heard of this being done before? Can you see any drawbacks, possible problems we might have?
Christy
Oh I sure i will be keeping everyone posted on this, I am sure I will run into problems and will be asking for help. I think I have the humidity and the heat thing down now after reading it here in so much easier terms than i have ever read on them other sites.
L2G.....I for sure know what you mean. We incubated our 1st batch of eggs before I found DG. I poured over all kinds of books and different web sites. The only thing I really found totally confusing was the fact that it seemed like the temp and RH to keep them at were all different. That was VERY confusing to say the least and left us always guessing, wondering if we were doing it right and worrying. I was a nervous wreck and was sure every other day, at the least, that we had ruined them. I am sooooo happy that I found this site. Lots of people to walk you through it and help you out!! ^_^
One tip I learned the hard way.......when candling eggs, if you are not really sure what you are looking at, put it back in the incubator and give it a little more time. After seeing a bunch of candling pictures and reading a bunch, we were 'sure' one was a dud after 10 days. We broke it out on a plate.....oh no, a baby chick. That is heart breaking and we won't make that mistake again!! Hope that helps a little.
Christy
I know what you mean. Mom has chickens and we had a family get together and was making tater salad, boiled the eggs and thankfully mom was do this, if it would have been one of the kids they would never touch an egg let alone anything with egg in it again. Yes a boiled chick, the hen had been setting. Mom didnt know she had stolen the hens new to be baby. We were so heartbroken. Mom no longer has a rooster so no problem now :) When I get my new chicks I will be giving her some to replace her chickens they are getting a bit old now at 3 yrs old but still laying. She will still not have a rooster tho.
I will probably make this bator and test it out soon, maybe next week and then I may order me some eggs. I just dont really want to be doing the brooding thing in the cold months. So if I am going to do this I best get on it.