Join the Conversation: Building an Egg Incubator

Over on the Adafruit forums, robodude66 asked for advise on how to build an egg incubator.

I’m building a chicken egg incubator! Long story short I moved from NYC to Idaho for a gal. Her father is a farmer, and is in need of a large chicken incubator. The size of incubator he’s interested in sell usually for $900 to $2,000 new and are way out of his budget. Seeing as I love electronics, I offered to help build one. Because minds work better in groups, I’m looking for some feedback on my ideas/design.

The main requirements for the incubator are as follows:

– Keep temperature between 99.5 to 100.0f (99.9f is best).
– Temperature fluctuation of +/- 0.5f is tolerable over short periods of time, however fluctuation of +/- 1.0f over long periods of time can be fatal.
– Humidity should be kept at 58 – 60%. During the last two to three days, while hatching, humidity should be increased to 65%+.
– Eggs must be “turned” roughly +/- 30 degrees five times a day, except for the last two to three days during hatching.

A second Adafruit forum member, jigsawz happened to also be working on a similar project (see the start of his setup above).  Follow along, and offer up any advice you might have!


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



2 Comments

  1. I have a few suggestions:
    1. Use a thermistor for your temperature measuring device. It will give you the largest change/degree. The system will have to be calibrated, but since you are only making one, that should not be a problem.
    2. Use a stable reference for both the A/D converter and thermistor excitation.
    3. Use a PID control loop for temperature.
    4. Use a small fan to stir the air. You may want to use a pwm control for fan speed. Prevents hot and cold spots.
    5. Use good quality resistors in temp measuring circuit(low drift).
    6. Use solid-state devices for heater control. Relays will wear out quickly.

    That is all that I can think of.

  2. hey,
    i built a chamber with similar requirements, but for an entirely different purpose. I am a hacker chef, and in the process of proofing bread dough, i have to adjust the temperature and humidity throughout the proof cycle. i actually am using an old refrigerator with a humidifier inside. The DHT11 sensor handles temp/humidity monitoring for VERY cheap. As far as PID control, you can use the PID library that is currently available, but auto tuning becomes a pain.
    tweet at me if you need any more info @avidanross

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.