So... you were wondering how we made our incubator? Read on!

Our topic for this term is healthy communities, and the project we decided to make is a homemade incubator. The steps to making a homemade incubator are to first of all get a polystyrene box or a plastic chilli bin. Then you cut a hole in the top so you can see the eggs and monitor what’s happening inside. I think you should make the hole quite small because we found that we were losing too much heat though our glass. Next you need to wire up the light and screw it through the box into the wood that is a backing for the screws to go into. After that we connected a dimmer to it so if it gets too hot we can turn it down and if it gets too cold we can turn it up. Remember, that you must put a bowl of water in to help maintain the humidity. The next step is to plug it in and watch it throughout the day, adjusting temperatures as required. Finally you need to put in the eggs and watch them.
We had the eggs in the incubating over the labour weekend and we found that it was getting too cold in the nights and during the day it was getting too hot. Our teacher was almost positive the eggs were dead because of the temperature fluctuations, so we decided to make some improvements. We installed a thermostat so if it gets too hot the light will turn off and if it gets too cold it turns back on. We also got more polystyrene and put it all around the box to keep it warmer and we wrapped it in an insulations bat. We think we have solved the problem, however we are just waiting to get the new eggs. Of course we will continue to monitor our project to insure we get baby chicks. I can't wait to see if we’ve done a good job!!!!


BY MIKEY