Maybe a slightly weird question... (about incubators)

Our incubator for our first clutch of eggs this year ended up being a cooler. We completely forgot to build our incubator (old stand up freezer). So we just went out and bought a cooler, put come water bottles in the bottom of it, put 11" heat tape on the side and stuck a VE-200 on it. It worked great! And would probably hold 4 clutches, but we just had 1 in there. But we're planning on still building our other incubator. This was just an "oh sh**" moment!

Building your own incubator is very easy and pretty inexpensive. When I made mine 3 years ago, I was able to reference this site and youtube for just about everything. The have really nice examples and really cheap examples. I think that spending a little money and building a nice clean design will give you the reassurance you'll want when putting your eggs into it. Also you'll have a better understanding of the few components in the incubator. This should help in troubleshooting any problems that may arise.

As for how big to make it....that will depend on you and what your breeding plans are. Not just now, but in the future. Just try to think ahead, why build one that will fit only a couple clutches this season when you may have 10 next season. If you're like me, this is pretty addicting. My first season I had 4 clutches and 13 the next. Granted they tend to be staggered and I've only had 7 at any one time in the incubator, but you never know...

I hope this helps. Good luck!!!