An Inexpensive Chicken Incubator You Can Build
This is my incubator. Homemade from an old GOTT ice chest I found on the side of the road. Believe it or not I BLEACHED this thing like crazy.
I have cut out a window with a Dremel tool. If you have never used a dremel tool, this is NOT the time to try it for the first time. I think jig/sabre saw would have worked better. I suggest making the window as big as possible if there might be more than on person watching. The first hatch I didn't get to see much except my children's heads crowded over it.
This is the window after adding the "window" which is actually a laminating material. I will change it to glass or plexiglass before the next time. The condensation was really bad if the room was cool. I covered it with a towel and that helped.
The light/heat source that I used is a light fixture for a ceiling fan. We bought it at a Wal-mart clearance for $1.00, and planned to someday use it. It has room for four light bulbs. I used two 7 watt blue bulbs and two 15 watt bulbs. This way I did not have to worry so much if a bulb blew during the incubation. The thermostat is a regular wafer. I got it off of Craigslist/Freecycle for FREE.
I used a page out of Speckledhens book and used a shelf liner to cover the wire base. What you can't see is that there is a 13x9 metal pan (it is actually an enameled pan) to hold water. I also drilled some air holes.
The end result.
Update: I used this incubator for about 3 years. I just recently took it apart, and used the parts to make a hatcher out of an old wine refridgerator. I am turning it into a hatcher. I bought a used GQF Sportsman incubator with turner.
This is another article from a few years back that didn't make it into my blog. My daughter has made several incubators since and most have barely cost her Anything! Chickens are fun to raise and you will almost always have fresh eggs with a few hens. And as long as you have Chickens, you will always have great fertilizer for your garden or to add into your compost pile. However, the manure from chickens is about 5X stronger in nitrogen than Cow Manure. Start out by using at sparingly and see if your plants can handle it. You can burn them up with Chicken Manure.
This is my incubator. Homemade from an old GOTT ice chest I found on the side of the road. Believe it or not I BLEACHED this thing like crazy.
I have cut out a window with a Dremel tool. If you have never used a dremel tool, this is NOT the time to try it for the first time. I think jig/sabre saw would have worked better. I suggest making the window as big as possible if there might be more than on person watching. The first hatch I didn't get to see much except my children's heads crowded over it.
This is the window after adding the "window" which is actually a laminating material. I will change it to glass or plexiglass before the next time. The condensation was really bad if the room was cool. I covered it with a towel and that helped.
I used a page out of Speckledhens book and used a shelf liner to cover the wire base. What you can't see is that there is a 13x9 metal pan (it is actually an enameled pan) to hold water. I also drilled some air holes.
The end result.
Update: I used this incubator for about 3 years. I just recently took it apart, and used the parts to make a hatcher out of an old wine refridgerator. I am turning it into a hatcher. I bought a used GQF Sportsman incubator with turner.
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