Making A Homemade Incubators-20+ Ideas For Hatching Eggs

A homemade incubator will enable you to hatch the number of eggs you want, when you want. Hens are not always broody and sometimes will not sit on the eggs so they can hatch into a brood of little chicks. A simple DIY incubator can help solve this problem and keep your backyard farm going strong with a steady supply of new chicks.

A homemade incubator will also enable you to be selective with the hatchlings. You can choose eggs from the best hens to place in your homemade egg hatcher to keep your flock healthy and strong.

1- Open Styrofoam Homemade Egg Incubator

To make this homemde inclubator by Backyard Duck for only $10, simply cut the upper end to from the middle for maintaining the air flow. With usage of 15watt bulb and proper ventilation, you can get fertile egg after 10 days. This certainly answer the highly inquired question, how to hatch the chicken eggs at home.

1- Wooden Box Homemade Incubator

For making this homemade egg incubator by backyardchickens you must look around for large wooden box in your house; if you can’t manage to find one, you can get it from some garage. The dynamics for the incubator remains the same – you need socket, bulbs and thermometer. Read the details to see step by step construction of this design at backyardchickens so that you can see chicks hatching soon.

2- Styrofoam Homemade Incubator

Here we have another syrofoam homemade incubator. If you can’t have the broody mother for hatching chicken eggs, you need to have a homemade incubator to hatch the eggs. Styrofoam incubators by instructables can be good choice for you, if you are looking for getting done with the tasks in just $30. All you need is to gather some spare parts from your own home and invest time in its making.

3- Homemade Drawer Incubator

We like this DIY incubator plan by backyardchickens more than the others as it has an auto turning facility for 20 eggs that is an integral part of hatching eggs. Look for identical old drawers in your storage space or buy the recycled one from the market. You need to have 2 drawers attached so that required depth can be created.

4- Styrofoam Broccoli Box Homemade Incubator

You can find it on any grocery store easily. With basic skills and simplest items you can create incubator for hatching eggs like this one by nanaglenmum with your convenience under safe conditions.

6- Vanity Cabinet Homemade Incubator

We like this homemade incubator by Backyard Chickens as it has huge space, proper viewing windows, powerful ventilation and obviously, great looks. Moreover, such a cabinet has capacity to hold over 200 eggs, if you have need for massive hatching demands. More detail at

7- Inexpensive Homemade Incubators

Read good information on how different incubator plan like this one by raising-happy-chickens works and what their utility is. Not all the inexpensive plans would bring fruitful results to you; they might turn out to be a failure. Therefore, chose wisely before making the right choice so that you end up having lots of little fellows running around in your backyard. You need chick brooder when you have little chickens comes out from the incubators.

8- Styrofoam Cooler For Chickens

For any successful homemade incubator plan like this one by stormthecastle you need to understand about how air and temperature works. Also, adjustment of the bulb plays an important role; otherwise, you may end up ruining up your eggs. However, due to small space available, the plan would not provide you with enough space to have more than 4 or 5 eggs.

You might be lucky enough to follow the same plan on a bigger box, if you local store has that. Enjoy the creative tasks and get away with hassles in just a few dollars.

9- Styrofoam Box Homemade Incubator

This simple idea produces great results. This homemade egg incubator by instructables starts out with an ordinary Styrofoam food cooler. Follow these easy instructions that will show you how to add a few pieces of wood and some electronics and you will have a homemade incubator that will hatch eight eggs for you.

10- Cardboard Box Incubator

Sometimes hens will generously lay eggs, but refuse to sit on them until they hatch. This idea will show you how to make an incubator from a cardboard box that will hatch the eggs for you.

A couple of boxes, a small watt light bulb, along with a few other items will allow you to select and hatch eggs from your best laying hens.

For almost zero investment of money, you can create this efficient incubator like this one by homegrownorg and have a steady supply of chicks to sell or raise.

11- Large Egg Box

This homemade incubator by motherearthnews is ideal for the business person who sells chicks. This large egg box provides multi-stage incubation times for up to 150 eggs at once.  It has the capability to hatch 30 eggs every day. This egg hatching incubator will maintain a steady temperature and is ideal for hatching chicken, duck or guinea eggs.

12- Wooden Egg Hatcher

This simple and effective design will enable you to incubate and hatch a few chicken eggs during the winter as a fun family project. Follow these detailed instructions and create a DIY incubator like this one by hobbyfarms with your kids, then let the kids monitor the progress of the eggs for a few weeks until they hatch. The incubator is small enough to remain in the house, but large enough to incubate 6-8 eggs.

13- Auto Turning Hatcher

This unique design gently turns the eggs during the incubation process so you won’t have to. Chicken eggs should be turned three times a day during their three week incubation period. That is a big time commitment if you lead a busy life. Free up some of your time and successfully hatch eggs with this auto turning hatcher idea by piwakawakavalley.

14- Solar Powered Homemade Incubator

This egg hatching machine by instructables runs on solar power and  is ideal for off-grid living or anyone looking to reduce their electrical usage. This solar powered incubator will keep eggs at the desired temperature of 99 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit without the use of electricity.

You can keep costs low and production and profits high with this cheap to build and operate incubator.

15- Cooler Homemade Incubator

In this idea we will learn how to transform a large, ordinary, insulated cooler into a functioning homemade egg hatcher such as this one by backyardchickens. This easy to build incubator can hold and incubate several dozen eggs at a time so you can always have chicks on  hand for raising or selling.

The inside rack make egg turning quick and easy. The insulated cooler helps maintain just the right internal temperature from top to bottom.

16- Freezer Homemade Incubator

Transform an old, non-working freezer into a highly efficient homemade incubator by backyardchickens with these detailed instructions. Safely and effectively incubate and hatch close to 100 eggs every few weeks with this idea. The freezer insulation will help maintain a constant interior temperature for the eggs.

If you have access to a non-working freezer, this DIY build could be almost free. All the little chicks it will enable you to hatch will be profit to you.

17- 300 Eggs

If you need a large supply of chicks on hand at all times, we highly suggest you to make this homemade incubator by backyardchickens if need to hatch large number of eggs. will meet that need. It’s a wood cabinet design that is 4 feet tall will hold 300 eggs, has automatic timer, thermostat control, circulation fan and auto rotating for the shelves.

The clear glass front allows you to see the multiple shelves holding the eggs and monitor the interior heat and humidity. Great for placement in an unheated garage or barn.

18- Hatch-O-Bator Homemade Incubator

Use recycled parts to create this efficient Hatch-O-Bator that will get the job done with a minimal investment. Very little time and money will go into this DIY building project by backyardchickens yet you will reap big profits with all the chicks you will be able to hatch and sell.

The main building components are a few pieces of leftover plywood, a water heater thermostat and a couple of 15 watt light bulbs. Cheap to build and cheap to maintain.

19- Wine Cooler Homemade Incubator

This is another recycled project that will provide you with an efficient egg hatcher by backyardchickens at little to no cost. An old refrigerated wine cooler makes an ideal egg hatcher, and it can be set up outside or inside your home. The glass front allows for easy viewing without opening the door and losing heat.

Start by removing all the inside and electrical components of the wine cooler, then build your egg racks to fit right inside the cooler box. A light, fan, thermometer and some fertile eggs is all that’s needed to complete the recycle project and produce new chicks.

20- Homemade Incubator

Follow these free instructions to build your own homemade incubator by backyardchickens that will hatch dozens of eggs at once.  The double door design will allow you to do maintenance work in the heat chamber without losing heat in the incubator.

A printed diagram plus pictorial instructions make this DIY build simple for even beginners. If you want to hatch large quantities of chicks at once, then this egg hatcher will enable you to do so with minimal effort and expense.

21- Cabinet Style Homemade Incubator

You would enjoy making this kind of an incubator by rockridgefarms because it ends up elevating the style of your home. It can hatch as many eggs as want, depends upon how many shelves you install. It can be place anywhere, even in your dining hall, as it has fancy appeal. Everything that is required for its making would be available to you either at home or at local store. Cherry finish look makes it a lively choice for home setting.

22- Wooden Board DIY Incubator

This is two level diy incubator with eggs and water on the lower end, while fan and bulb at the upper end. The outer structure can be created by using water resistant wooden slabs joined together for perfect shape.

Conclusion

A homemade incubator has many benefits such as cost, custom design unlike market ones that are expensive. Making your own incubators also helps you to keep your flock size larger as broody hens are not always ready to go for brooding or less motherhood habits.

You can select any of these incubators we have shown you above that best match your needs. Hope this article has guided you well in making your own incubator.