Homemade Incubator Using a 10 Gallon Aquarium for Chicks

Preparing the Environment

• Before you bring home your newly hatched baby chicks you will want to be sure to have the incubator all set up and ready for brooding them correctly. The glass walls of your aquarium will provide draft-free walls for the enclosure, so you'll want to have a wire top to allow air ventilation. You can use an old screen covered in chicken wire to allow the heat to regulate itself.

  As the chicks develop feathers and grow stronger, it is not uncommon for them to try to hop out of their brooder. Having a top across the opening will prevent accidental falls and injuries. A solid top would allow the heat to build up very quickly inside the glass walls and risk overheating your chicks, so a wire top is the best solution for an aquarium chick cage.

Regulating the Heat

• Your heat lamp should be at least 6 inches above the top of the enclosure, and with such a small space you'll want to monitor the temperature carefully. The brooder should never get above 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

  By watching your baby chicks carefully and keeping an eye on the thermometer, you can prevent them from getting chilled or overheated. You should never see your chicks huddled together for warmth or scattered to the farthest edges of the incubator as though trying to escape the heat. Ideally, you should see your chicks moving throughout the entire enclosure.

  Position your heat lamp suspended from the ceiling so it is above the incubator. Keep it to one side or the other, creating a temperature variance throughout the cage. This will allow the chicks the chance to regulate their own temperature by moving from warmer to cooler areas of the cage as needed.

Other Supplies

• Provide a clean bedding material such as wood shavings or newspaper shreds for your baby chicks. To ensure the best health of your chicks, you'll want to remove soiled bedding at least once a day. It would be best to spot-check twice a day and remove any debris because a 10-gallon aquarium doesn't provide a large floor surface. Chicks will be forced to walk through their feces if you do not clean it up, and are likely to track it into their food and water.

  For feeding, be sure to provide a chick starter feed in a chick feeder. If you use a flat plate or kitchen bowl, the chicks will climb inside and soil their food very quickly. A chick feeder or creep feeder as they are sometimes called, will have small openings in the lid to allow the chicks to reach their beaks through, but not allow them to climb in and track dirt into the food.

  One of the most important considerations for new baby chicks is constant access to clean, fresh water. Your water dish will either have to be very shallow, or a specially made chick waterer. A large bowl of water will soon have a baby chick inside, creating a situation where the wet chick either drowns himself, or becomes chilled and dies. A chick waterer with a bottle in the center will allow a constant supply of water for the chicks, but the dish part will still need to be cleaned out on a regular basis.