The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Jon Feather on June 25, 2015, 05:48:12 pm
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Just finished this the other day and put the first lot of eggs in today. 8 Runner Duck eggs and 34 hen eggs. :fc: :fc:
It is quite simply an old fridge over freezer. I'm just using the top half of the fridge half for now to see how it goes. Heating from 3x40w light bulb, controlled by an STC-1000 control unit. Cost me about £16 to make.
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how do you get ventilation in?
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It's a work in progress at the moment so there are no ventilation holes. Having said that, it is quite a large fridge with only 42 eggs in it. Even without opening the door every now and then I don't think they will ever run out of oxygen.
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You may find that the STC-1000 controller has too wide a temperature control range Jon. I looked at this unit before deciding to repair an incubator. Incubator electronic controls don't simply switch the power on and off, they pulse it to keep the temperature within half a degree. Aside from ventilation mentioned, how are you controlling and monitoring the humidity?
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Good luck :thumbsup:
Are you running a fan or is it still air?
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You may find that the STC-1000 controller has too wide a temperature control range Jon.
Yes, I think Chris is right here - you may find you get too much temperature variation for a good hatch. However, I had a cheapo incubator when I first started that just turned a lightbulb on and off, and it worked ok to be fair.
Speaking with my control engineer's head on (I'm still at work ;D), I'd either be looking at some sort of analogue heat control, or pulsing like Chris says, or wiring the lightbulbs individually to give a stepped heat output (perhaps driven by a small PLC?).
You might as well give it a go for this hatch though and see what happens. I'll be interested to hear how you get on :thumbsup:.
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Hi guys. I don't have a fan in it yet. I will though if i decide to incubate more than one level.layer of eggs. Re humidity: I will add this before the next hatch. Although the general thinking in these parts (South West Cumbrian coast) is that the climate is damp enough. A lot of the old boys don't add any water to their incubators. Re the STC-1000: I'm no electrician and no less than nought about these things but this unit can be programmed to come on and off at 0.1C difference. That has got to be better than my Hovabator. The temperature in that would vary by 10C.
I'll be candling the eggs every week so I will keep you posted. I just hope my 5 yr old Maran cockerel is still "on the job" so to speak. :fc: