Incubating eggs on the cheap.....

[glenniedragon]

I've been thinking (considered dangerous by all who know me) how hot is the air temp on one of those heated propagator thingies? I can find compost temperature but I wondered if there was any way of adapting one of those into an incubator, you could then turn it down to be a brooder and open up the vents.....anyone have any enlightening thoughts on this? could it be possible?

kind thoughts
Deb

[Shirley]

Hiya

It's not just temperature but humidity that you need to keep at the right levels...

Why not look for a secondhand incubator??

[glenniedragon]

I've borrowed one at the moment, but looking to the future I might not be able to resist hatching eggs in the future. Even second hand seem to be quite expensive- the best would be if I could get one of my hens broody but if I want to hatch quails I'd have to incubate. The older type of incubators just had a dish of water in with no monitoring, if the temps right maybe that would be ok?
I'm just a novice at this!

Kind thoughts
Deb

[Shirley]

I'm certainly not an expert myself.

We incubated in three different incubators last year and had varying results.

You can get a thermometer that you could put inside that will tell you the temperature AND the humidity - It will be interesting to see if anyone has done this in a propagator.

[glenniedragon]

That would be an interesting experiment, maybe I should post a cross-thread/reference in another section on the forum as someone somewhere may have one of those beauties ticking away on the windowsill as we speak! great chatting these things through with you Shirlz-thanks for the help!

kind thoughts
Deb

[Shirley]

you could also ask the question on the www.practicalpoultry.com board.

Do tell us what they say :D

[Wombat]

I posted some links on the other thread!

Nev

[Shirley]

http://www.alin.or.ke/tech-note/data/incubator.html

http://www.poultryconnection.com/links/ ... _Brooding/

there are more.... have a google

I'm sure Nev mentioned something about incubators a while back...

[glenniedragon]

Yes he's just answered the other thread on the veggie board, I posted on there to see if anyone had a heated propagator on the fizz. Its funny, I don't normally have the chance to post so late- my boys have gone off to Nanas for the half-term so I can have a lay in in the morning!

Kind thoughts, and another swig of vino
Deb

[nick]

don't know how many eggs you are thinking of hatching. if only a couple ie. up to eight in a clutch, try using bantam hens. I have a couple of chinese silkies and they are forever broody. using two hens you could hatch out eight chicks each hen approx every 15 weeks if you leave the chicks with them. (think I've calculated they go broody every 12 weeks) this way you don't have to worry about temperature and humidity and the hens will look after the chicks until they are feathered. know of someone who uses the silkies to hatch duck eggs so they aren't real fussy birds when it comes to offspring.

[Jessica]

Hi if you look at the website www.practicalpoultry.co.uk in there forum there is a lot on incubation and water , and the conditions needed for incubation,

jessie