DIY Incubator for Chickens

What You Need

• To build a functional chicken incubator, you will need an old plastic cooler, a square or rectangular piece of glass smaller than the cooler's top, silicone caulk, a water heater thermostat, a drill, mesh wire, a plug with 2 to 3 feet of wire, a light fixture, a 40-watt light bulb, a PC fan, a 12-volt transformer, 2 to 3 feet of PVC pipe, two pipe couplings, two 1/2-inch plastic clamps, a wooden box about as long as the cooler is wide and around 6 inches wide, a shallow pan, a couple of sponges, a thermometer or hydrometer with a probe, a water wiggler, a water bottle, some tubing that fits into the top of the bottle, a thermometer, two old pill bottles, screws, wire nuts, and a pen. See reference for a picture of all of these things.

Process

• Cut a hole in the top of the cooler that the piece of glass can fit into. Use silicone caulk to secure the glass into the opening. Drill six holes in the cooler: Two of these are on the side for vents and should be just wide enough for the pill bottles to fit through them; two should be smaller and directly across from each other for the egg turner; one should be for water to flow into the cooler; one is for wires to fit through. Secure the shallow pan with the sponges inside to the bottom of the cooler with silicone caulk. Bend the wire mesh for form a cover for the pan and sponges. Cut a hole in the wire mesh for the water tube to fit through. Place the wire mesh over the pan and sponges and line up its hole with the water tube hole. Take the water bottle and place the tube in the top, then run the free end of the tube through the water tube hole in the cooler and then through the wire mesh and into the pan.

  Cut the bottom off the wooden box and replace it with wire mesh. Place the plastic clamps at the center of each end. Place the box atop the wire mesh in the cooler with its meshed side facing down. Cut a piece of PVC pipe so that it will fit through the two holes drilled in the sides and just out on each side about 3/4 inch. Run the pipe through the holes and through the pipe clamps on the bottom of the wooden box. This will be an externally operated egg turner. Place pip couplings on either end of the PVC pipe. Use screws to connect the pipe to the box inside.

  Cut holes in the bottom of an egg carton and fit the egg carton inside the wooden box.

  Using nuts for spacers, connect the PC fan to the wall but make sure it does not touch the wall. Now you will need to wire the PC fan, the light, and the thermostat. Run the neutral wire from the plug through the wire hole, making sure to leave the plug outside the cooler, and connect it to the #1 screw on the thermostat. Run a short wire from the #2 screw on the thermostat to the silver screw on the light. Connect the other wire on the plug to the gold screw on the light. Mount the light and the thermostat onto the wall using screws. Run the wires through the hole.

  Cut the bottoms off the pill bottles and fit them into the vent holes. Keep the caps on the bottles. You can take them off when you need to.

  Place the probe from the thermometer/hydrometer into the water wiggler toy and set the toy onto the egg holder. Put the second thermometer onto the wire.

  Fill four or five baby food jars with water, put caps on them, and place them in the water.

  Finally, fill the pan with water and adjust the thermostat as needed. Plug the incubator in and close the top.