Electric Frying Pan Incubator

Score last night at Value Village!  I picked up this extra long electric frying pan for $15!  And, because I had #1 along with me, I got a 20% student discount!

I was looking online for incubators, since I think I will have a large number of eggs this spring, considering my large number of chickens running around.  I found a couple of references to incubating eggs in an electric frying pan.  An electric frying pan is a much cheaper investment than most incubators, and if it doesn't work out, I can always use it to cook in.

I'm tired of buying chicks that cost me a fortune, and feeding them to the foxes.  The foxes, of course, like to wait until I've also invested a lot of money in feed before they claim their share.  I'll continue trying to fox proof my chicken pen, but I'm very excited to give hatching my own eggs a try.

When we lived down south we always had a few banties and an occasional rhode island red go broody and hatch out their own eggs.  By the time it warms up enough here for a hen to go broody, winter is just around the corner.  So I'm going to attempt the incubating.

I've cleared off the corner of my little desk in the space between my room and the bathroom, which I think will provide the most sheltered (ie, keep the kids and dogs from messing with them) location, without being so far out of the way as to let me forget about them.

I've been playing with the temperature and a thermometer all morning, and I think I've gotten to the 100°F setting desired.  I'll keep checking it through the evening, as the house begins to cool off- the joys of heating with wood- and tomorrow morning.  I may need to adjust the temperature between night and day as I go.

I'm using a damp microfiber cloth as my lining.  Tomorrow, I start adding eggs.  Hopefully my rooster is keeping the hens busy out in the coop!