Who Has Used A Homemade Incubator?
 

I have a large polystyrene box (which was a chicken incubator in a previous life, so has two Perspex viewing panels :) It also has a few small air holes.

I am thinking of adding a heat mat on a pulse thermostat after the discussions on modern incubators with a fan drying out the eggs.

My question is: is it critical to lift the lid daily? (I seem to remember hearing this in the past) No one lifts the lid in the wild do they?

i have a diy incubator made from a polystyrene box (used to transport tropical fish),a large heat mat in the bottom with a couple of house bricks on top ,this creates a thermal store,i open it briefly to check the eggs and the water tub.it works great and the only cost was the mat + stat.

No you don't have to lift the lid every day :D

Danny

I have only ever used a homemade incubator:0)
I used it for tortoises for over 20yrs, and now use it for incubating box turtle eggs. Both completely different incubation Technics:0)
I have a couple of smallish holes in the lid of the incubator, this way I dont have to lift the lid every day.

Thanks folks :)

I have bought an incubator and now having read this I know why some the yolks etc where dry. Any thoughts on how to stop this? Maybe disable the fan ?
Thanks
Sue

What type is it:smile:

Sue I hope I didnt mislead you there. Do you mean infertile eggs after they have been incubated for a while? Because like normal eggs they do dry and almost cook slightly because of the heat. It was a strong fan drying out the air then the eggs I was refering to.

I am not an expert on incubating tortoises, but one way for to make sure the fan is not blowing on the eggs and drying them out would be to cover the bowl containing the eggs.