Chook Me!

how to make a incubator quick and cheap.?

hey i might get 2 chickens but i want to raise them from eggs or chicks im young (13) and i want to be able to make a incubator for the chicks to live in until they can live outside. well i wanted to but a glass box with no top like a goldfish bowl with no top and somehow stick a light in there is that possible. and if now how can i make a cheap incubator? please help.

Public Comments

1. www.herpcam.com/incubator.htm pretty simple way of doing it... much cheaper than buying one for the incubator and egg turner it cost me over $100
2. Chicks don't live in an incubator, you hatch eggs in the incubator then you need to buy/build a brooder for when they have hatched, with a red heat lamp for warmth. If you buy fertile hatching eggs there is no guarantee they will hatch. Why not just buy some older chickens say 16 weeks old when they are about to lay? Chicks only stay cute and fluffy for about a week, by 6-7 weeks old they are pretty much adult, fully feathered etc if not quite as big as adult chickens. If you hatch your own eggs or buy young chicks you run the risk of ending up with cockerels and then what will you do with them? Yu will have no eggs and 2 male birds who may well fight and will certainly be very noisy. If you buy older chickens that are obviously hens it is much easier. If you do decide to have chickens its a big responsibility, someone has to be there morning and night every day to shut them in their coop. If you go on holiday someone reliable has to do this for you, they are a tie you can't just think "Oh I'll go away for a couple of days". Also they need a run during the day with a secure coop for when it rains and roosting at night. The run and coop must be predator proof. They need proprietry feed (chick crumb for chicks, layers crumb for when they are older) and medication for delousing/worming etc.
3. Step 1Place a light socket, with a cord attached, upside down on top of a Styrofoam cooler lid. The larger the Styrofoam cooler the better. Trace a circle around the light socket and use a utility knife to cut out the hole. Step 2Place the light socket into the hole, widening the hole with the utility knife if needed. Let the cord run out the top. Make sure you can reach the on/off switch from the outside. Add a dimmer switch to the cord. This allows you to control the temperature from the outside of the incubator. Make sure the dimmer switch is for table lamps and not a light switch installed on the wall. Step 3Take an 8 x 11 piece of glass, found in picture frames, and cut out a square slightly smaller than the piece of glass into the side of the cooler. Step 4Use tape or wood glue to attach the 8 x 11 piece of glass onto the side of the incubator. Glue it to the outside, not the inside. This creates a sealed window to view the inside of the incubator through. Step 5Punch a few small holes in the side of the incubator. They provide ventilation. Consider buying a small, plastic fan and placing it in the back corner of the incubator to help circulate the air. You'll need to run the cord out the side like you did the light socket cord. If you cannot find one that will fit, continue without it. Step 6Fill a small bowl with water and place it inside the incubator. This helps with humidity. Step 7Place a thermometer in a clear plastic sleeve inside the incubator in a location you can see clearly through the window in front. The base should be at the same height as the eggs will be when you place them inside. Step 8Put a 25 watt light bulb into the light socket, or a 15 watt light bulb if your incubator is made from a small Styrofoam cooler instead of a large one. Close the lid and plug the light bulb in. Step 9Turn on the light bulb and the fan, if you included one. Allow them to run for several hours and monitor the temperature. Tape over ventilation holes if the temperature remains too low, and poke more holes if it stays too high. You can also adjust the strength of the light bulb using the dimmer switch to control temperature. Step 10Place the eggs inside the incubator after you feel you can keep the temperature within the desired range. Make adjustments to the ventilation holes, the strength of the light bulb or the fan to help get the temperature to the right level and keep it steady before beginning.
4. Be careful with this. I once made an incubator and I am very ashamed to say I accidentally killed three full-term ducks because I got the humidity messed up. I used a poly-box, you can get one free in a reptile shop or fish tank place (you know the type I mean, made out of polystyrene). Cut out four sections off from the lid of the box, this is so if it is too hot in there you can take off a section, and too cold and you can put one on. But it's in sections so the heat lamp can be fitted on the top. To cover the gaps and stop humidity escaping use clingfilm (also provides a handy little window). Use a bowl in the bottom for water, and a heat lamp at the top for heat. Try and find a mesh of some sort to rest the eggs on, it must be something that lets the humidity through to the eggs, and it can't let the eggs roll, and it must be a good surface for little chicks. You will need to buy some bits; A ceramic lamp; lightbulbs are fine but when the eggs hatch they need darkness as well as light or they will be too stressed and die (also experience) A dimmer switch; this is to give you a better control on the temperature. Humidity and Temperature gauges; these can be bought from a gardening shop, but the digital ones (with alarms) are recommended to be safer. Also, more than two eggs. I'd say six. This is because you probably won't be able to keep cockerels, and one hen on her own would get depressed. The poly-box also makes a good brooder for after they hatch, just take out the bowl of water and put a proper surface down for them and they'll be fine for a few weeks. Make sure your parents are ok with this, they need turning five times a day and I'm guessing you are not sitting at home all day every day so someone would need to help you. Also, you can't keep chickens secret for long. Good luck, and please do some research - buy some books and stuff. Honestly, you are creating life here and it's very easy to kill them again.