Posted by:
joshhutto
at Thu Nov 30 23:03:27 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by joshhutto ]
it depends. how good are you building things and are you 100% confident on your ability to wire things safely. I use a home-made incubator that can hold 12 clutches of eggs at a time and after this year that won't be enough (might not be this year). It works great and has a temp fluctuation of only - 1 degree. this is as good as most commercial incubators but when I need another I will buy just because it will save me time.
now if you want to build one, this is how I made this one. Get a fridge, size depends on you (this one is a med sized fridge but i wish it was a large one as I could fit 6 more clutches of eggs at least in it). Remove all the "guts" from the back of the fridge. remove the partition between the freezer and fridge sections. make a false bottom that contains a space for light fixtures that will be wired to a thermostat. In the false bottom, wire 2 or 3 light fixtures. Drill a 4" hole in the false bottom and attach a computer fan so that it pulls air from the light chamber and blows into the egg chamber. on the opposite corner of the false bottom drill another 4" hole so that air is pulled out of the egg chamber and into the light chamber. Wire the fan and pass the wires from the lights and the fan out of a small hole in the back of the fridge that you drill or if there is one there. After that fill the hole with spray expanding foam to seal and prevent heat loss. next.Construct 2 doors out of 2 sheets of 3/4" plywood sandwiched together, one door for the egg chamber and one for the light chamber. Cut hole in door of the egg chamber for 1/2" plexi window (size is up to you). Decide what size egg boxes you are going to use (normally 6 or 12 qt tubs here) and set your shelves in the egg chamber). In the top left corner install another computer fan blowing air down (keeps air moving and prevents hot spots). Drill a hole and pass the wire from the fan out of it. In that same hole, run a few thermometers and the thermostat probe into the egg chamber and then use the foam to close that hole. Use weather stripping on all edges where the doors meet the now incubator to prevent heat loss. screw in some 60w light bulbs, plug your lights into your thermostat,set thermostat to 89-90 (your choice but I use 89), fans get plugged into the wall and you are done.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto
J&K Reptiles
Various Ball Pythons:::
1.0 striped vanilla
1.0 spider
1.2 Citrus Ghost and hets
1.2 Albino and hets
2.3 het Pied
0.6 50% poss het pied
1.1 Pastel (male has additional gene going on with him)
a bunch of normal female breeders
a bunch of normal female holdbacks and several rescued normal males
0.1 columbian boa, she's a feeding monster, controls my
over production of rats, lol
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa, another rat eating monster
1.1 corns
a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!
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RE: Homemade incubators??? - joshhutto, Thu Nov 30 23:03:27 2006 