Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm building my own incubator out of an old frezzer. I have a temp probe and a humidity probe ran in side, which I planned on putting inside the container with the eggs. I also have the thermostat probe which I will also put inside. My questions are:

1) Do I need another temp/hum. probe outside the container?

2) I like the set up with the vermiculite and the plastic grid that you set the eggs on. Do I control the humidity in the container by dampening the vermiculite or do I control it by placing a tub of water in the bottom of the freezer?

3) I guess I wanted to make this a year or two early just so I can test it out. So when I am completed I plan on giving it a trial run for the 60 or so days. My question is what Humididty and what Temperature have you found to turn out good results?

Thats all for now, I appreciate any advice. Maybe someone could post pics of there homemade incubator! that would be great! BrianD

1) Do I need another temp/hum. probe outside the container?

No. You are not worried about that air, you are not incubating that air. It could be 1000F or it could be 100F, it makes no difference. You are incubating the eggs, and that's all the matters, regardless of the temperature outside the egg box.

2) I like the set up with the vermiculite and the plastic grid that you set the eggs on. Do I control the humidity in the container by dampening the vermiculite or do I control it by placing a tub of water in the bottom of the freezer?

No. But you can. People do, and it works for them. But the whole point of the no-substrate method is that you have 100% relative humidity and a dry/no substrate. If you do it the way it was designed for, you'd have a submersible heater that would be hot enough to evaporate the water causing warm, wet air to fill the incubator. That's the design. This warm air is what incubates your eggs. But of course, as with everything in the world, you can do things many many different ways.

3) I guess I wanted to make this a year or two early just so I can test it out. So when I am completed I plan on giving it a trial run for the 60 or so days. My question is what Humididty and what Temperature have you found to turn out good results?

You don't need to make it a year early, let alone 2 YEARS early!! You can make it and calibrate it just fine a month or so ahead of time (if its built properly).

And you're not incubating humidity. Humidity is just a measure of how moist the air is. Its not of any help to you. The eggs are what you are incubating, and because of this, they will tell you if the air is too wet or too dry. I incubate eggs, not air, water, or perlite. I don't worry about that stuff. The eggs are the only thing that interests me.
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I will be finishing it up in the next couple days and I'll post some pics for everyone to see and to comment on. Thanks Again for the help Jeff. BrianD

That's cool. I can't wait to see your design!!