building an Incubator

[steve30947]

does anyone know where i can find plans for an incubator that i can build ( eather free or pay ) that will hold about 200 quail eggs.

[philz]

yeah I think their's some plans on this website. I'm not sure how much they hold though.

 P.D.'s got a pretty good handle on building them. Check out some of the other posts and everything

[steve30947]

i saw P.D.'s and it is very nice. i have a hava bater night now i'm just looking for something bigger and better that i can use the one that i have now as a brooder. i'll keep looking around. thanks much.

[penny's dad]

Hello Steve welcome to the forum. There are a lot of designs on the web. You just need to look around.I have built several improving on each one. I'm not certain it would fit into everybodys plans but it fit mine.  When you get right down to it they are all basically the same. A box to put eggs in that holds a certain temp, and humidity.Any way you can get it to do this isallright. Most have a thermostat of some kind most all use water, but if it will hold the temp and humidity it will hatch eggs. This forum is a good place to start looking a lot of people here have good ideas :)     P.D.

[rickyrooster]

http://www.the-coop.org/wwwboard/discus/messages/1/6496.html   here is a web address for building your own incubator. if it is not what you are looking for you can always modify it to suite you. good luck Rick!!!!!!!!!!!

[stewaw]

Good cheap bator.....Local appliance repair shop.  Get an old refirgerator about the size you want (mine is one of the mid sized single door dorm style with three racks).  Gut the compressor and condensor coils to make it lighter weight. Drill several 3/4 to 1 inch holes in the back for ventilation.  Mount a four bulb light fixture in the "freezer" compartment and wire through a wafer switch (note: don't be tempted to use an electronic thermostat with the light fixture...Amperage is too high and works fine for about thirty seconds and then you get an awful smell and a wife that wants you to sleep outside). Get a small fan for circulation. Use the crisper drawers (or freezer condensation pan) for water pans. Use the racks to hold egg turners and you're set.....Total cost- Less than $15.00 since I had everything except the snap switch laying around.  Mine is capable of kicking out a turner full of eggs every seven days.  Start a turner full of eggs on the top rack, one week later move it to the second rack and place a fresh turner full of eggs on the top rack, week two move each turner down one rack, week three- take the bottom rack out and place the eggs in the hatcher, disinfect and reload with fresh eggs for the top rack again....... During the off season, it doubles as a storage cabinet in the shop.

Imagination is the mother of invention,
David

[steve30947]

stewaw
        do yo think it would be possable to hook a electronic thermostat to a relay and use a space heater. and where do you fine a motor that you can use to turn about 4 of the trays at once and that have the gearing for it

[stewaw]

Yea, running the electronic through a relay would be the only way I can imagine getting it to work without frying the circuit. As to the heating element, I use light bulbs but any heating element would work.  It doesn't take much of a heating requirement when it gets to operating temp because refrigerators are fairly well insulated.  I use four 40 watt light bulbs and I've had several occasions where two of the bulbs had blown and the remaining two were able to keep the temp fine.  Regarding the turners, I use separate commercial egg turners that I already had from other styrofoam incubators. They are powered by a power strip mounted to the bottom. To "make" the entire racks tilt all that would be required is a couple of flat washers welded in the center of the racks (use the wire on the rack as your guide) and run bolts/nuts through the sides of the cabinet.  Then it wouldn't be much work to tie all the racks together on the back with one brace so that as the brace goes up or down, the racks all tilt together.  Get yourself (or make) an offset eccentric of some type that has the "throw"/"tilt" you want and a very small motor could be geared and/or chain driven and "poof" you have it.  You could tinker it out yourself or compare costs for replacement motors/operating mechanisms for some of the commercial cabinet incubators. I like to look at schematics of the commercial units where possible and adapt them to fit my application. Sometimes it works, sometimes by the time I get the bugs worked out I've spent more than I would have paid for a commercial unit that comes with a warranty :oops: .

David

[steve30947]

would the motor from 1 little giant egg turner be enough to turn 3 or 4 trays of eggs at 1 time from quail or pheasant. if not could someone be able to recomend 1 that i can use. thanks
      steve