Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've searched the forum for this but all I found was for incubators made from freezer/refrig or from coolers. My brother is quite handy with wood so I thought if I found plans I would ask him to make one for me. Thanks for any info

n/p

Thanks snowcrash Jeff responded quite promptly and with pictures toooo!!!

Depends on what kind of incubator you want to build. If you want one that uses the "no substrate" method, then you basically just build a big insulated box, that can be lined with plastic/rubber to hold water. This usually pre-determines that you are building a box that opens at the top.

The other way is to construct an insulated box that houses eggs the conventional way, on moistened vermiculite/perlite. This means you can have a top-opening incubator, or a front-opening incubator.

Pick one and we can go from there!

I am new at this so I would take your experienced suggestion. Which do you think is the best way to go top or front? What I was hoping for was actual plans with dimensions for an incubator to handle 12 to 15 clutches of ball python eggs to give my brother.

Thanks

So I can't really tell you. My incubators are 3x3x3, and 3x3x2. They both hold about 12 Ball clutches each.

Not much "design" invoved, so there isn't really a need for any plans. Just use 1/2" or 5/8" plywood, insulate the insides with styrofoam, then line it with plastic (double-lined just in case), make a lid that opens at he top (I used 2 doors) get a 250W aquarium fish heater, calibrate the temps to 89F, get a Helix thermostat and calibrate it to 90F (as a back up), but the eggs in and that's it.

Here's an old pic of an old incubator, and a new pic of some new eggs:

Thanks I appreciate your very prompt answer and pictures. I will send that to my brother and see what he can do for me..

Thanks again

I SUCK with woodworking and it took me all of about 4 hours to make the first one with a skill saw only about 5 years ago. I'm sure you can make a much more appealing one, as long as its functional!!

Cheers, and make sure to post pics and ask questions. Incubation is one of the most important parts of this whole breeding thing, LOL!

Thanks my brother is pretty handy with wood so I will post a picture when he finishes it. Thanks again

It took a little while to get together but it wasn't hard to build; only problem is it is heavy. Basically I started with making a rectangular box using 5 4'x2'x3/4" sheets of melamine board. Not too much cutting just the top, bottom and door. I wouldn't have had to cut the door but I wanted to build the electronics into it's own space with a nice exterior. I then lined it with Styrofoam and covered that with 1/8" melamine board used as dry marker board. I used angled aluminum to hold the shelves, not sure what they call the shelves but all the building materials were available at Lowes and Menards.

For heating I used a heating element, insulators and analog thermostat from Lyon Electric Company, Inc.. I used computer case fans to circulate air and keep temps the same top to bottom.

I used a box that sits in the bottom of the incubator with an aluminum plate screwed in the front to mount the thermostat controls, buttons and contain the electronics. I also mounted the heating element on top of the box. This makes it look kind of cool but not at all necessary. To make it easier you could mount everything to the side.

With all the shelves in, it will easily hold 15 shoes boxes, 20 if I want to crowed it a bit. Once set the temp hasn’t changed more than a degree. The only thing I would do different next time is use a digital thermostat instead of an analog which would make it a lot easier to set.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

What's the hatch rate with all those fans?

I lost a few Macklots eggs last year but I don’t think that had anything to do with humidity, they all went bad about a week after laying. I think it was more do to where the female laid her eggs and how long afterwards I found them. I keep the eggs in plastic boxes with vermiculite, the boxes have no holes. I open them every couple days to circulate air but the humidity stays above 90%. I have it wired so I can turn on and off top and bottom fans separately so if humidity does drop I can turn off the top fans. If it starts to drop I can also place a tub of water in the center of the heat element so it raises the ambient humidity. So far I have not had to do either.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

Thanx!

I'm glad you brought it up, I should have mentioned humidity in my original post. Got caught up in the building aspect. Being able to keep the humidity correct is easily as important as keeping the correct temps. I have made this mistake in the past, good temps mean nothing if you can't keep the humidity up. This in part is why I built the incubator I pictured.

Thanks,
George