A big problem with operating an incubator in a cold room is the gradient from top to bottom because hot air rises, the bottom of the incubator is often several degrees colder than the top. The unit needed to be well-insulated to buffer it from big temperature swings while sitting in a cold garage, so I built a cabinet that’s a box within a box and that has fiberglass insulation. Here’s how I put together my DIY incubator (see my DIY Incubator Materials List for a rundown of the supplies I used). The self-turning mechanism isn’t used routinely, but it still works, and in case of an emergency, I can use the cabinet as an incubator once again. As a hatcher, this unit can keep up to 150 hatchlings healthy and happy. These days, I transfer eggs from one of several incubators to this unit three days before the eggs hatch. Also, it’s nearly impossible to maintain ideal, steady humidity and temperature conditions for both hatching and incubating within a single unit.

It didn’t take long for me to abandon that idea after realizing that hatching is a messy process and that clean, quietly incubating eggs shouldn’t have to deal with commotion and dander fallout. Originally, I wanted a multi-stage incubator that would do it all: incubate on automatically turned racks and hatch on a stationary bottom shelf. Attractiveness that would match a nice piece of furniture.Steady temperature in an unheated garage in January.Multi-stage incubation (incubate 150 chicken or duck eggs and hatch 30 eggs at one time).When I set out to build my own egg incubator about five years ago, I had several goals in mind: I use it to hatch approximately 600 chicks of rare heritage turkeys, geese, chickens, and ducks during the January-to-June breeding season each year. I’m now satisfied with its performance, but I’ll never quit tinkering with it.

Further, this homemade hatcher has undergone three major redesigns. My current homemade hatcher must be the fifth or sixth version I’ve built, though I’ve lost track of my total number of DIY adventures in incubation. A poultry farmer offers up the lessons she learned after constructing her own DIY egg incubator cabinet to hatch rare heritage chicks.

Best home incubator for chicken eggs