Wife has had declining hatch rates for the last 2 seasons. She uses a 3 different brands; Hovabator Genisis, Nurture Right 360 & some Chinesium special. decided, on a whim yesterday, after another poor hatch to just build one.

built essentially for free, using materials already on hand. we have 2 egg turner trays already. one from the Genisis and one we ordered as a replacement/upgrade, but did not fit. I will order 4 more ($40/ea) to match the roller upgrade style, but will start with 2 I have on-hand. 1/8" plywood was scrap from a job at work. 1/2 foam insulation was purchased 5 years ago (before we moved to the farm) to build... an Incubator. Using wife's A419 Johnson Controller from her fermentation fridge. I found a 4" duct fan after an eviction and i always have/find extra flex duct after remodels. heat element with be a 40 or 60 watt light bulb, in a socket left over from remodel work. the egg turner trays will sit on a removable shelf I am building today. when hatching day arrives, the egg turners can be replaced with brooding trays.

will be able to hatch:
750 quail eggs
230 chicken/guinea eggs
160 duck eggs

I will post more photos after completion today.

>>2931066 (OP)
You should line the inside with something that's won't absorb the smell of a rotten exploded egg. Spray it with a coat or paint or plastic

mid-day update.

it's operational. using 75w bulb. it achieves temp in about 10 min & holds it perfectly as to A419 inputs. I am currently building the turner & brood tray stand.

I used a few curtain rod mounts with a bit of grinder and Bending mods to make a socket mount. few beer cans for heat shield and an aquaculture grow net modified as a duct mount. I also made a cover for the circulation fan duct. I will install it after full testing and final placement.

shelves are in. will be adding two more tiers later, but for now, this will accommodate the two turners we own. we are bringing it back up to operating temp, timing it and checking egg rotation. I had already wired a 3 prog extension cord onto the turner before this project. I will likely just take it off and wire it into the wire nuts for the heat lamp. this does mean it will only rotate when the heat circuit is on, but I feel this will be sufficient. I want the turners to be easily removable and I dont want to cut a big hole for a three prog plug to pull through.

looks like my egg number was overly optimistic. I was planning on 5 racks, but can only fit 4 without getting too close to the heat bulb. I also lost some space on bottom because I want a removable humidity & cleaning tray.

I will run it for a full set of quail eggs for testing prior to tidying up and finalizing wiring and circulatory fan duct cover. 17 days, then I will make adjustments as needed.

You should have just started with a discarded non-working mini fridge or something along those lines. Already set up for shelves. Nice magnetic sealing insulated door. Easy wipe out interior.

>>2931147

I didn't have one on hand. this was an unplanned project, spontaneously started at 3:00pm on a Saturday, using only what was available on hand. we live 20 miles from town. I wasn't driving anywhere, for anything, and I didn't spend a single penny, that wasn't already sunk cost investment from prior endeavors. every screw, latch, hinge, glue, etc... was what I had to work with.

I went ahead and moved it into its final service area and put the external wiring & duct cover on. the cover makes a noticeable difference in heat/rest cycles and time. I also removed the extension cord and tidied up the wiring on the turner tray, wiring it directly into the heat circuit.

we have the A419 data, a GOVEE thermometer with 2 probes; one top, front right, one bottom, front, left plus she has her Bluetooth Incubator thermometer sitting on the egg turner. there is quite the gradient between them all. we will let thermal mass stabilize overnight. she will set her quail eggs in the morning.

duty cycle on the heat/turner circuit is about 60/40 on/off. circulation fan is on its own circuit. eventually I will splice into fan circuit and install 4 quick disconnect clips for turner tray removal. this will suffice for our first test incubation.

since we live partially off-grid, we monitor our usage closely. we also consider that with the input/profit calculation of avian livestock sales. with her historic low hatch rates & the fact she was running 3 separate (25w-40w) incubators and 3-4 separate (janky) brooder setups using 75w-150w heat bulbs in open-air steralite tubs.... we should increase profitability 4-5× what it has been. often she has had less than 25% hatch rate and a 500w-750w per-hour cost of operation. hopefully this will solve both problems.

overnight, we achieved thermal mass equilibrium. lowest documented 99.7°F the highest was 100.4°F humidity is only 30%. we just stuck a 1/3 filled steralite shoebox-size pan of water in before bed. wife mentioned adding a humidifier connected to a sensor/switch inside the cabinet. CAN ANON RECCOMEND: a humidifier that can simply "run" when power is supplied (no need to push power/any button) and what type of humidity sensor/switch? I have never had to control humidity with accuracy.

at 9:15 pm tonight, I will have complete 24 hour power consumption data.

24hr data: 1.25kWh actual.
Grok Est: 1.64kWh

.39kWh lower than estimate. I attribute this to stabilizing thermal mass. once the cabinet itself had fully heated, run cycles decreased. Grok estimate was $6.80/mo if purchased from grid. that would drop to $5.29/mo. operational cost, if we were to purchase 100% from grid. after calculating our solar input/output, the monthly cost drops to $4.00

quail eggs went in yesterday afternoon. we will candle eggs for viability this Sunday. if this post is still around, I will update.

>>2931066 (OP)
What are you doing you need to incubate so many eggs? Not knocking it but if you aren't selling them this will be you.
https://youtu.be/oHON_Pvs0RM?si=Zs8wlxDsTs2Ft84o

>>2931595

wife does sell them. she has been unable to keep up with orders due to the slow decline of her NurtureRight 360 and Hovabator Genisis incubators. she has a Chinesium Special on loan from her white friend. it hatched OK, but is limited in capacity. it has been past time for an upgrade to a cabinet unit for 2 years.

her avian and lagomorpth livestock profit outpace my ovine livestock sales 10 to 1 this year. I hope to have a 6 lamb crop spring 2026 which will potentially fetch somewhere around $2,100. this year, spring 2025 was the first time I had and "extra" ewe lamb to sell, after adding 2 ewe lambs, 1 ram lamb and 1 wether for butcher this fall. spring 2026 I will sell every lamb that drops. despite that, her sales will still likely outpace me.

candled the eggs today. viability looks good. higher than the Chinesium Special, but custom cabinet build set is 7 days behind Chinesium. nonetheless, it is promising for sure.

I also made a brooder tray. they're short, and small: 16×16×4.5" so it won't be a long term brooder. perhaps 4 days to a week, depending on species and hatch rate. I will make one brooder tray for each egg turner tray. 4 in total. this allows for a removable cleaning and humidity tray.

very pleased, even a bit surprised. I shouldn't count the eggs before they hatch...

8.64kWh over 7 days, calculated out: that comes to 22.5kWh per incubation. 150 quail eggs per tray X 4 trays = 600 quail eggs.

let's assume 75% hatch rate. that's 450 quail.

chicken/guinea/duck scale accordingly. we don't hatch a ton of chickens. they don't sell well & we eat more rabbit. our primary breed is Ameraucana mostly an egg layer. we keep some silkies for their hatching qualities, which fetches a premium price.

I am more interested in hatching guineas. they are our primary insect & plague control on the farm. they also fetch a premium price due to limited market availability. they're great meat. 100% dark & flavorful. they lay some eggs, so there's that... sort of.