# DIY Cabinet Incubator



## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

We FINALLY have our first try at a DIY cabinet incubator up and running! It has the automatic humidifier, a couple heaters, a couple light bulbs in case the heaters blow, a few gauges, and we'll be adding four more drawers. This is just a test run... it has a handful of mini silver apple yard duck eggs and I am going to pop in some barnyard mixes as well. While those are incubating I will be segregating the breeds so I can have some pure bred chicks. Our eating egg market FINALLY caught on and I have people on waiting lists for chicks. So exciting!  (Also this incubator allows for a lot of options. I can hatch anything from quail to ostrich, no problem. Totally will be hatching any dragon eggs if I stumble by any. )










Here's a few photos of my flock - what to expect from Spring chicks! (Sorry most are old photos, they're still fun.)

Silver Penciled Rock










Silver Gray Dorkings 









White Laced Red Cornish




























Of course the Brabanters.... (who with the Dorkings make up most my flock.)



















Frizzle & Smooth Serama









Rose-Comb Rhode Island Red (Heritage)










Cream Legbars


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Good luck with the experiment. Please keep us posted as all of those eggs hatch.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Sounds like fun!!!


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Oh I will definitely be around when everyone starts hatching! It's going to be an adventure!


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Woohoo! startups are fun! I love that the planning and getting the p


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Well... it looks like it's working.... We got 77 chicks and 11 ducklings that were developing fine on day ten. Let's see how many come out to say hi.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I'll say it worked and in a big way. Congrats.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Wow! Mass hatch!


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Well.... the first ten days went so perfect. I really did have 77 developing in there... But then the heat spiked to 102 and I am not sure how long it stayed there and when I turned it down it went to opposite extreme - decided to heat the top drawer to 99 and the bottom to 97! Then the power went out... 

So here's who we lost along the way... 
Brabanters - 17 developing, 9 hatched
Dorkings - 26 developing, 12 hatched (might have another working on it)
Barnevelders - 8 developing, 6 hatched (top drawer!) 
B/B/S Barnevelders - 2 developing, 1 hatched
Barnyard Mix - 24 developing, five hatched- a few still working on it. (bottom drawer) 

Hmmmm. We made a few revisions. Will make a couple more and try again...


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Well a few stragglers hatched... now we're up to a 50% hatch rate. It's not great but at least I am feeling a little bit better about it. I also vaccinated everyone this morning and it went a lot better than I had expected. I think we're on the right track now but anyway here are some photos...

Got a lot of Dorking pullets with a red-headed step hild (to the side) that I can't really explain.... must have been a throwback to an earlier rooster.










Only three boys from that bunch (I thought I had to be wrong but I have confided in someone more experianced than me and what do you know...) 









Also got more girls in the Brabanter batch although I'm really not confident of my wing sexing skills just as of yet - first time trying! 









Here are the brabanter boys.... one has a bumped out Polish head?! 









Some barnyard mixes... 


















These were particularly hard to photograph -- they wanted to eat my camera an cuddle with me... 









This is a great photo but it also is proof my Dorking sex links worked... I believe the right one is a female, the middle a male, and the left one is just a different cross... The difference is remarkable. 









Brabanter with the weird Polish dome... It's a male.... and I can't resist calling it Elvis... 









After TWO years waiting on a list here's one of the eight Barnavelders I managed to hatch. They're HUGE compared to the other chicks... and are such a lovely chocolate color. 









The woman threw in 6 Black/Blue/Splash Barnevelder eggs to sweeten the deal after forgetting about me last year.... I hatched one out. No idea what I am going to do with it.... but I love it's werewolf looks!


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Did egg-topsies....

Looks like there were two catastrophic events. The firs was literally a day or two after candling. We believe this is when the 75 watt bulb died and we only had 100 to replace it (we even went to several stores to buy another but 5 watts is apparently too weird to carry!) The second event, and this is terrible, we lost 14 probably just two or three days before hatching. Still not sure what caused that...

But the incubator is full again after a number of improvements.... so here goes another round!


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

Wee, could you please post how you made your incubator? My husband came home with a shell of a defunct fridge with a glass door he wants to make an incubator out of. Thanks in advance!


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

I forgot I was going to put a little ditty up about how that incubator was constructed. It's mostly plywood... we got the humidifier, the sensors, the heater, the fans, off of Incubator Warehouse. There's secondary heat coming from a 29 watt bulb, one at the top, one at the bottom, and for cold days we also have a heat matt, the kind you'd give a turtle, at the bottom. There's dead space at the top for air circulation. Was going to see if can get my dearest's attention to put up a better description of what he did!


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