Incubator + outdoor garage = ???

[birdguychris]

I just made a great trade. I am hatching out 100 of my pheasants and 100 of my bobs for a guy, and he is giving me a nearly brand new 12 compartment electric battery brooder, and a very large commercial incubator. My question is that this incubator. It is about 4' x 5', and about 4' tall, and is made for turkey eggs. It is thick and insulated with a heafty motor. The thing is that I don't have room for the incubator in my house, so will it be alright outside in my garage? I know the foam incubators I have have to be inside, but I don't know about this one. Thanks

[Bugflipper]

Do you by chance know what brand it is, or can you give a description of it? I would recomend all windows in the garage be darkened. There's truely no way for any of us to know the spread of temp in your garage. I have commercial incubators and hatchers in insulated quansit huts. There is no air conditioning, but I have a mist system, evaporation wall and ventalation, temp can be contolled 35 degrees under outsite temp. I keep all the thermostats at 75 degrees. My temp spread day to night stays within 5 degrees, my units can handle 15 degrees variation. Maybe with a cieling fan and a $6 mister that connects to a water hose, you can keep the daytime temp down to 80 degrees and maybe you can get by( depending on brand).You may also be able to experiment with foil backed insulation on the outside of the incubator to see if you can slow down the afternoon heat penetrating.

[stewaw]

I have to agree with Bugflipper. Depending on where you are located, summertime heat could be a difficulty.  You probably will be able to get by until the daytime temps climb into the mid-90's provided the incubator doesn't receive any direct sunlight. After that, unless you have some way of cooling the garage temp you will have problems. Remember, a good incubator should be able to keep the temp up (even in very cold climates), but I'm not aware of an incubator made that can cool a batch of eggs below the ambient temperature....that part is up to us.

David

[birdguychris]

I live in washington state, and my garage is on the bottom of a two story building. It isn't insulated, and has concrete floors, so the temps rarely get above 80 in the hottest weather. For the most part, it stays cool, and there is only one window anyways, so that souldn't be a problem. So this should be alright?