Today, we had an accident with incandescent bulbs in the incubator. I fear that this setup is not good, and this could happen again. Perhaps we might want to switch the heating element to something modern, safe and energy efficient.
I’ve tried asking Google Bard for some recommendations, and it has come up with:
- ceramic heater
- heat tape
- brooder lamps
- PTC heaters
- heating mat
I am considering to get a few PTC heater samples from an online B2B marketplace. Right now, we have a single incubator, and there’s plans to get/build a few more.
We have to account for:
- region: I’m from the southern parts of the Western Ghats (Karnataka-Kerala border), so obviously, there will be no snow, but yes, rain might be a big headache, as these incubators are stored in a room near to an open air coop
- power cuts: they’re not that frequent, but still bad news. And the place I live in is almost like a hill-station
- material: We are planning to DIY our next incubators, and thinking of using wood instead of polystyrene. But we also don’t want to sacrifice maintenance for sustainability
I use a heating mat, and have old fashioned hot water bottles I can fill with hot water from my gas stove if the power goes out. The heating mat will need to be supplemented with some top down heat when the chicks first hatch to help dry them out, but after that the heating mat works great. It’s nice bc if they get too hot they just move off of it.