Cookers
When I first started breeding chondros, I too struggled with the incubation process as do many many others. So I decided to design a easy to build incubator which utilizes a well insulated cooler for it's base cabinet which can be purchased. At any number of retail stores for about $40 to $60.
Since incubator designs can vary quite a bit from breeder to breeder, and typically vary due to the breeders room dynamic and temperature regimes. I applied some very simple process's to the design process to create a cooker that would function well under many different circumstances. Below are pictures of the end product as well as links to some sketches I made, and a document I wrote that explains the dynamics of the incubator, so the user can tune it to their own set up.
Here you can see the unit assembled.
Here you can see the thermostat installed.
In the next pic the unit has been up and running for a week, there is two gallons of water in the bottom of the cooler, and water in the egg box. Yet almost no condensation to be seen!
Next is my personal incubator, I also designed and built this unit.
It is a large cabinet style cooker which employs the same dynamics to create the same stable environment as the cooler unit.
Below you can see the insulated outer door.
Below are the brains of the cooker, which are old school Helix basics with the push buttons which displays your set temp.
I run two stats with only one truly controlling the cooker the other is a back up which is kept at .2 to .3 F below the main stat as a back up should I have an issue with the main stat.
Above you can see how I place both my stat and thermocouple probes. As you can see i control the air temp only of the incubator, and monitor air temps on both shelve's. With this set up I only get .1 F difference between the two shelves from my set point on the stat.
Above you can see I use a 120mm PC fan to force air through the false back and over the heating element
Below you will see where the heated air exits the false back and travels across the fifteen gallon water heat sink. While I know that keeping fifteen gallons of water in the bottom of a incubator sound extremely excessive. I started out only using one or two gallons and found that when i increased the volume of the water I increased the stability and recovery time of the incubator.
In short this design can accommodate five too six clutches at a time, stays spot on my set point for temps, recovers from being opened in less than sixty seconds with no heat spike , and provides me with above average hatch rates.