Content
It doesn't matter for what purpose you breed quail: commercial or, as they say, “for home, for family,” you will certainly need an incubator. This article is about how to make a do-it-yourself quail incubator.
What is an incubator for?
Natural incubation is sometimes not feasible. There is not always a brooding quail. In addition, one bird can hatch 12 to 15 eggs. The market price of chicks is quite high, so many people consider it advisable to purchase hatching eggs.
What are incubator diagrams? These are hermetically sealed boxes with heat insulation, heated and equipped with egg trays. The design is not particularly complicated, and you can make it yourself. The advantages of self-made quail incubator.
- Low material costs.
- Incubator parameters can be selected based on your own requests.
- You can make a non-volatile structure if, for example, you have a gasoline generator on your farm.
If you opted for a finished product, then there may be the following options.
- A Styrofoam incubator is the most economical option. They are not particularly durable, but their price is also low. Before deciding to buy an expensive industrial incubator, calculate how soon it will be able to pay for itself. It is wise to get the cheaper option at first, and when you are more experienced with breeding birds, buy something more impressive.
- An incubator with automated egg turning is quite expensive. Such equipment is used on large quail farms. For a home mini-farm, an automatic unit is unlikely to be beneficial. In addition, practice shows that most often it is the system "responsible" for turning the eggs that fails.
Self-execution
For making a home incubator with your own hands, a broken refrigerator or an ordinary cardboard box is suitable. In the latter case, care should be taken to keep warm. In addition, there are quite strict requirements for the microclimate of the room where incubation will take place.
- The air temperature is at least 20 degrees.
- The temperature inside the incubator varies between 37 and 38 degrees.
- The optimum air humidity is 60 to 70%.
- You do not need to turn the eggs for the first two days. From day 3 to day 15, the eggs are turned every 2 hours to prevent the embryo from sticking to the shell.
- 2 days before hatching, the temperature in the incubator is kept at 37.5 degrees. The humidity level is 90%. Eggs need to be irrigated periodically with a spray bottle.
- The residence time of eggs in the incubator before hatching is 17 days. The hatched chicks are in the incubator for another day, for complete drying and acclimatization.
Incubators must also have holes. If it is necessary to adjust the air temperature and humidity inside the device, they are opened and closed. The body of the device can be made of chipboard, MDF, fiberboard or board. For thermal insulation, it is best to use a roll-type insulation material.
For incubation choose eggs that are medium in size, not cracked. Before placing eggs in the incubators, examine them with an ovoscope to make sure that the egg contains an embryo.
There are several options for how to make a homemade quail incubator.
First option
You will need it for work.
- Box.
- Plywood.
- Styrofoam sheets.
- Metal mesh.
- 4 incandescent lamps of 15 watts.
This method is clearly shown in the video:
The procedure is as follows.
- Cover the box with plywood and insulate it with styrofoam.
- Punch a few centimeter-diameter holes in the bottom.
- Make a glazed window in the lid to control the state of the eggs and the microclimate in the box.
- Just below the cover, mount the electrical wiring with cartridges (they are located in the corners).
- About 10 cm from the bottom, secure the egg tray by placing it on foam supports. Pull a metal mesh over the top of the tray. The incubator is ready.
Second option
If you find it difficult to figure out the drawings of a quail incubator with your own hands, an excellent device will turn out from an old refrigerator. It is quite roomy and has the required degree of tightness. Instead of shelves for storing food, trays with eggs are placed. For wall insulation, foam is used. Holes are made in the walls for air exchange and incandescent lamps are installed. You can turn eggs using a metal lever.
The third option
We adapt an old cabinet under a homemade quail incubator: plywood or made of chipboard sheets. An old TV cabinet will do just fine. Durable glass doors provide control over incubation. Ventilation holes are drilled in the countertop. A heat fan is used to raise the temperature inside the incubator. A metal mesh is placed on the floor of the device. A steel plate on movable mounts is used to fasten the egg trays. Through the hole drilled in the wall, attach a handle that can be used to rotate the eggs every two hours.
Fourth option: incubation device in a bucket
This way of setting up a quail incubator is great for a small number of eggs. All you need is a plastic bucket with a lid. The procedure is as follows.
- Cut through the window in the lid.
- Install a heat source at the top of the bucket (1 light bulb is sufficient).
- Place an egg net in the middle of the bucket.
- Drill ventilation holes 70-80 mm from the bottom.
- To maintain the desired humidity level, pour some water on the bottom of the bucket.
By periodically changing the slope of the bucket, you transfer the eggs. It is not recommended to tilt the bucket more than 45 degrees.
Some helpful tips
When setting up an incubator for a home quail farm on your own, you need to adhere to certain rules. Here they are.
- You should not control the air temperature with an outdoor thermometer. Its margin of error is too great. An ordinary medical thermometer is much more accurate.
- Place the thermometer close to the eggs without touching them.
- If you are making a large incubator for a large number of eggs, then it is advisable to use a fan heater to equalize the air temperature.
- Control the temperature at approximately regular intervals.
Maybe industrial-made devices look more solid. However, practice shows that home-made devices are cheaper, easier to operate and much more practical than finished products.
I was lucky when I decided to grow quails, I only had to change the pallet in the sititek incubator, and not buy a new one.It turned out that you can earn a lot on quail eggs, even if you only deal with them in the summer-autumn season.