Homemade incubator sealant help

[rebecca100]

Okay so I have a plywood cabinet style incubator that we made last year. Do I need to seal it with waterproofer due to the humidity? I already have some Thompson's water seal multisurface waterproofer and some wolmans raincoat water repellant. Will one of these work? I'm worried about how toxic they are, but if I let them air out a few days after it should be okay, right? I asked this on BYC but no one responded and I know NOTHING about waterproofers!

 

[Snowhunter]

I just painted mine with waterbased paint. Smelled funky, but aired it a few days and hatched well over 100 chicks with it and no problems.

 

[Wannabefree]

I wouldn't worry about waterproofing, just paint it. Then again...I'm not always the brightest bulb in the box I would think though that that humidity for short periods wouldn't be too damaging considering my bator generally has plenty of humidity just from our air alone when I first crank it up. The humidity in our house right now is 45% and I have no dampness issues

 

[Icu4dzs]

You definitely need a certain amount of humidity in the incubator or the chick will 'stick' to the inside of the egg and hatching will be difficult. Don't ask me how I learned this...

I would recommend silicone caulk and if you are really concerned about toxicity (although I really don't have much in the way of knowledge on that with chicks) You can put the caulk on the outside of the box and that will work just fine. Thomsons water seal seems a bit 'over the top' to me. Wood will hold a good bit of humidity as it is but it shrinks and expands with the changes in humidity.

For my money, I'd go with putting it on the outside of the box along with sealing the joints of the box and that way, "theoretically" the toxic stuff should be on the outside and not effect the chicks.
Of course you could line the box with Saran wrap or aluminum foil and that would help contain the humidity and the heat.

Just my thoughts on this and NOT to be construed as anyway knowledgeable.
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[rebecca100]

Thanks y'all I read opinions going both ways when I did a BYC search and I wanted opinions from here. I wasn't going to do anything with it and just leave it bare wood, but I read somewhere that it should be sealed. So I found what I had on hand. I don't suppose it would really make much of a difference. I'm probably going to use it without doing anything to the wood and if later I see it needs to be done then I will. I do have it holding temp good though after I fixed the thermostat. I just haven't put water in it yet.