EPS-014
02/19
Make Your Own Incubator
Gregory S. Archer, Associate Professor and Extension Poultry Specialist
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, The Texas A&M University System
The egg-to-chick program can be a useful tool for the side of the cooler using nuts and bolts or zip
teaching. It can also be a fun construction project ties.
for students. This can be done by making your own 3. Wire the DC power supply to the computer case
incubator instead of buying one. fan.
Parts list 4. Wire the lamp kit to the hot water heater ther-
mostat.
• Lamp Kit • Computer Case Fan
• Hot Water Heater • Styrofoam Cooler 5. Finish assembling the lamp kit and screw the
Thermostat • Picture Frame light bulb in. Attach it to the cooler.
• Hardware Cloth • Plastic Dish 6. Place the plastic dish in the bottom of the cooler.
• 40-Watt Light Bulb • Duct Tape This will be filled with water during the incuba-
• Thermometer/ • Wire Nuts tion of the eggs.
Hygrometer • Corks 7. Place hardware
• DC Power Adapter cloth over the
plastic dish and
Procedure over the light
1. Cut two large holes bulb (Fig. 2).
and one small hole 8. Take glass from a Figure 2: Hardware cloth
in one end of the picture frame and covering plastic dish and light-
cooler. The lamp kit trace the outline bulb inside of the cooler.
will be attached to onto the cooler
the upper large hole. lid. Cut out the
The lower large Figure 1: Two large holes
and one small hole at one
area inside this
whole will be used line. Place the
end of the cooler.
for ventilation. The glass over the
small hole will allow the DC power cord to run new hole and
into the cooler (Fig. 1). tape it down (Fig. Figure 3: Cooler lid with glass
2. Attach the computer case fan, thermometer/ 3). viewing window.
hygrometer, and hot water heater thermostat to
9. Take corks and 11. Final set up:
trace around a. Set the thermostat to 99 to 100 degrees.
them on two
b. Plug in the lamp cord and DC power pack.
locations on the
lid (Fig. 4). Cut c. Add water to the plastic dish.
out the holes d. Place the lid on the cooler.
and place corks Figure 4: Cooler lid with e. Put tape around the large holes and places
into the holes. glass viewing window and
where the cords go through the cooler.
The corks can two cork-sized holes for
ventilation. f. Let the arrangement settle for 1 hour to see
be removed if
what the temperature and humidity levels
the humidity level becomes too high inside the
read. You can adjust the cooler openings or
incubator. Humidity levels should be main-
the thermostat as needed to maintain proper
tained at 55 percent relative humidity.
levels.
10. Poke holes around
the bottom of
the cooler on the
short sides (Fig.
5).
Figure 5: Small holes poked
around the bottom of the
cooler for ventilation.
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