As a homeschool experiment, Maggie is building an incubator for some chicks. We hope to be able to hatch a little brood of our own! We got the idea after looking at commercial incubators and finding that they are pretty expensive… a decent one starts at $100 and more!

So we snooped around on the internet and found all sorts of ones out there! We decided on the most basic, one without a thermostat and fan, etc. Since we’re around all the time, I think we can handle helping her out with keeping an eye on the temp and humidity and all that.

First off, you need a few simple supplies. A styrofoam cooler, a thermometer, a light bulb fixture and 25 watt lightbulb. A little dish and a sponge for humidity. A piece of glass or plexiglass if you want to make a little viewing window. And you need something to keep the hatched babies from the lightbulb and from falling into the water dish.

That’s about it!

First you have to cut a hole in the side for the light. Make it about half the way down, so they say! I suppose that you could put in the middle of the top, but that would block your window. We plan to sort of move the eggs around a bit, so no egg spends all the time too close to the light.

We had a little reflective insulation foam that we lined the box with. You don’t have to do this, but it will help to keep the temperature nice and even inside.

In the bottom of the incubator, place a glass or metal pan with a sponge in it. And fill it up with water about half the way up the pan side. You will have to fiddle with this level vs humidity thing, but it wasn’t hard.

We used a thin bendable grid mesh that people use for grilling veggies or fish. We got it at the dollar store, for ah, a dollar. It was perfect. You can use like hardware cloth or something else like close weave fencing. You want to protect the babies from falling into the water dish, or bumping the hot bulb as they hatch and dry. And heck, it will keep you from bumping the hot bulb three times a day as you turn the eggs.

Then Maggie made a little cage for the light bulb too. That mesh stuff bends very easily.

Almost done… just add a thermometer! Our instructions said to place it just above the eggs, and about half the way from the light to the wall, to get a nice happy medium reading. You have to keep the temperature between 98 and 101 degrees and the humidity between 55% and 70%. You have to play with it a little bit. At first we tried a 60 watt bulb… way too hot. Then a 40, and still too hot. Then we went to a 15 watt and it was too low. For our space, the 25 was right on the money. We cut two little air holes in the lid to help us fine tune the temperature inside. If it seems a little warm, we can peel back a bit of tape and let a little heat out.

We cut the hole out of the lid and sealed in a scrap piece of plexiglass. With duct tape of course! And then we hinged the lid with more tape. We added a little tape closure in the front to keep kitties from bumping it open. And we found a good place in the dining room on the table to keep an eye on it.

At first you need to run it a day or so without eggs and just watch to make sure it holds a good temperature and humidity. Once we got the right watt bulb, it was really pretty consistent through our test days. We did two, just to be sure.

And then we waited for the girls to help us out.

And they did! 10 eggs today! A record for Windhaven chickens!!! Everyone laid an egg!!! It’s the first time that has ever happened! I guess all the pep talks and the new nest palace helped! They love it!

We gathered them early while they were still warm from the hen bottoms! And then we marked them with a number and a name. We’re making this our precious minerals collection! Ruby, Pearl, Silver, Emerald and so on. And then we marked an A, B and C on the eggs in various areas so that we can see who was been moved and who hasn’t. You want to make sure they keep moving and not an even number, so that they don’t end up in the same position each night. Stronger chicks come from moved eggs. A normal broody hen will move her eggs up toe 92 times a day! But luckily, we only have to move them 3 to 5 times a day!

All installed and ready for their 3 week journey to chick-hood! Everyone seems to say that a 50% hatch rate with hand turned eggs is really good, but I hope we get better than that. We’ll just have to wait and see how good of hens we are! I wish we had a broody girl, but so far, no one seems interested in motherhood!

We marked 21 days on the incubator and we have a beautiful Maran hen feather to move each day like an Advent calendar! After 18 days you stop moving them and they will hatch within a few days of that. Should be interesting! We’ll candle them about a week into the show and see how they are doing. And then again probably each week. Our due date is July 6th! We’ll keep everyone informed… should be interesting!