What is an Egg Incubator?

I know that to hatch crocodile eggs you need to provide the correct temperatures so that you get the right genders. I guess they would probably mostly want to hatch out whichever gender is the largest so they can get the most leather from it.

When I was living in Africa I made friends with a man who had designed all kinds of incubators so he could sell the chicks.

He had turkeys and chickens and ducks, and even a goose egg incubator.

It was quite extraordinary considering he built them all himself from scratch with very little money. He had made himself one of the more wealthy men in town with his innovations.

The smaller the bird, the more difficult it is to hatch the chicks. It is tempting to try and incubate, for example, parrot eggs, as if you take the eggs from the mother she will often lay more. You might think this will mean more birds overall.

Also, hand raised birds are tamer than birds raised with their mother.

But, they can also suffer from health problems and a lot of the time the eggs won't hatch at all, even if you have a top of the line incubator. And getting the mother to lay multiple clutches of eggs can also cause health problems.

It's better if at all possible, to just leave the eggs with the mother, if it is a pet bird.

@goldensky - It's very important that you consistently regulate the temperature in your chicken egg incubator. It should be at ninety-nine degrees at all times and the humidity level should be above fifty percent.

It's okay to use an old cooler, although a styrofoam cooler with a lid works best because you'll need to punch a few holes in the sides for ventilation.

Another reason why you should choose styrofoam is so you cut a hole in the lid to insert the heat lamp through. You can even cut out a square in the side to glue in a piece of plexiglas to watch the little guys hatch.

Be sure to place a little thermometer inside to help regulate the temperature. You can raise the humidity by adding a little cup of water if necessary and some people prefer to add a mini fan to circulate the air evenly.

Hope this helps and don't forget to turn your eggs two to three times every day for the first seventeen days.

@goldensky - I made a cheap egg incubator for my son's science project last year. We used an old small plastic cooler and a heat lamp.

We put wood chips in the bottom of the cooler and nestled three eggs in the center of it. Only one of them hatched so we considered the project a success.

I need to make a homemade egg incubator for a science project this year. It'll be worth three hundred points which I desperately need.

Anyone have any ideas on how to make a small egg incubator that actually works. Thanks in advance.