Had a lovely evening working on the incubator. My new digital thermostat finally arrived and boy, is it ever a step up from the wafer-style thermostat. It wires up just about like the wafer-style thermostat, but it requires one additional wire to give the digital “brain” some juice. My only (small) complaint is that it mounts to the outside of the cabinet, which isn’t too bad, but you do have to find a spot for it.
All that was left to do after wiring it all up was to re-install the egg-turner linkage and verify that it still works.
It fired right up, and started turning. So far, so good.
Next up is to cut 2 ventilation holes in the top sides, but what to cover them with?
Mason jar lids anyone?
Once the incubator had run for a few hours to make sure it kept up a steady 99.5 degrees, it’s time to take out the trays and start loading them up with eggs.
The trays I made don’t really fit the eggs all that well, it requires some trial-and-error to get them to fit just right. Next time I’ll make trays that the bottom half of an egg carton will just drop right into.
51 eggs in the top tray, 42 eggs in the middle tray. Put them all back in, attach the egg-turner linkage, and shut the door. In one week I’ll take the eggs out and candle them and pull all of the “clears” (eggs that are not fertile).
I have a good feeling about this batch. I think all the major kinks have been ironed out of the incubator design. With a little luck we’ll have a bunch of chicks in 21 days.
how many watt of light bulbs you are using and how many ??
I use two 90w Rough-Service lightbulbs. You could use about any incandescent light though, more watts for a bigger cabinet, up to 250w heat lamps.
If I had it to do over again, I’d spend the extra $6 for a 225w heating element instead of a lightbulb. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/replacement_parts_and_accessories.html