I've finally remembered to take pics of inside after the renovation the other night. See the incubator with renovations
right here.
What I did was moved the lights down one end. I added a third light as well, but later took it out as the thermostat would cut out at an air temp of 39 as required, but the air temp would continue to climb to readings such as 40.3.
I also changed to two 40w bulbs, but a smaller size (save space).
I created a
mesh/wood barrier upon which I mounted two old computer fans powered by one 12v transformer.
[Someone asked me the other day what a "transformer" is and it occurred to me others may not be sure what I'm talking about. What I call a "transformer" is one of those power pack thingos that you plug into the mains power to provide power for such things as little organs, modems, zip drives, computer speakers, etc, etc. It basically takes 240v AC and "transforms" it into 12v DC (or whatever voltage that particular gadget needs). Think mobile phone charger...but don't use that as it outputs something like 3v.]
The two fans are mounted such that they draw air FROM the egg area into the heating area where hopefully it warms before it finds its way back through and around the eggs.
The water tubs for humidity are up that end, too.
I then created a wire rack to sit the eggs on using mouse/snake mesh. I measured twice, cut once and wish I'd measured three times. It could have been perhaps two inches longer. It had come off a roll and so wanted to curve, but if I tried to straighten it, I may have created a really distorted up/down surface. So, I tacked a few bits of thin board to it to hold it flat. It's not perfect, but it's better than it could have been.
I cut a bit out of the rack to accommodate the digital thermometer/hygrometer.
Then, because I had to scramble to create dividers during the first hatch to stop the chicks from escaping and falling down the bottom (or worse), I added a couple more bits of mesh to keep them on the rack. With the lights, water tubs and fans the other side of the tall mesh/wood divider, they'd have been safe anyway, but keeping them in view makes me feel better.
I put it all in place and closed the lid and tested it, removed that third light bulb like I said and allowed it to run a couple more off/on cycles before adding half the eggs I had. Later yesterday morning I added the rest of the eggs.
See the incubator with renovations
right here.
While turning the eggs a little while ago, I did the
eyetest on a few of them where you put them up to your eye socket to detect how warm they are and though from different areas of the rack, they all seemed fine.
Success!
...well, when they hatch, I'll know for sure.