I just finished reading a very detailed article on incubating eggs. The author reveals that the huge hatcheries also incubate eggs in the horizontal position. Seems like you and the momma chickens had it right all along!! My motor is gonna be sliding 5 trays back and forth. I hope?? Ya think?
Oh I see now!!! Thanks so much. Yeah the rolling is better also because it allows the egg to be on its side, and thus healthy development of the egg. That's a really creative design -- most rolling designs I have seen have the egg just roll between the rods, but that means they only roll ~90 degrees.
out standing . we use the motors for automatic agitators for making paint. they run all the time with out a load . They just rotate and activate a small limit switch. I will hand it to you for being very creative. well done sir. thanks again .
That's perfect then. Some of the disco ball motors I'd looked at before were a good 4x the size of the motor in my videos, so I wasn't sure which one you found. I'd love to see some pictures of the finished product if you felt like it:). Good luck!
#1 a complete list of materials in your description would have been nice. #2 when you do a build....typically people want to see it work at the end after watching a whole video #3 instructing how to set timers and other equipment is a must. Your video was entitled "detailed instructions" unfortunately too many people just assume that the people they are teaching know even just the basics of what they are building. Too bad that's not the case. If people are looking for a tutorial it's usually a pretty sure bet that they don't have a clue what they are doing. Otherwise.....good video
Happy to report that I built an incubator with your idea and get 100% success rate. Your way of rolling the eggs is more natural as the same way as chicken does naturally. Since I only built with materials that I had on hand, I didn't use a thermostat but use a light dimmer instead and I didn't have a slow motor so I added a rod extending outside and move the rack by hand a few times a day. My next step is to build a PID temperature control, and the circuit for a stepping motor to move the rack back and fore since I have 2 stepping motors laying around and can put that to good use. Thanks for your inspiration for this project.
@mcmujose Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I would assume your motor should work fine. I'm a little confused about it being 12v, but still ac. Are you sure it's not a dc motor? I've only ever seen the 120v-ish ac motors and 12v dc. You have to find an adapter that would put out 12v AC, which I'm not sure where you'd find. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to see how it all turns out!:)
Glad to here the temps are nice and stable for ya! That is a tricky situation with the timer/motor combo. You could simply let it run for 10-15 minutes each hour. Even though they would likely come to a similar resting place, it should keep the yokes from attaching to the inside of the eggs. Also, it's likely your 1 rpm motor will not keep perfect time with your timer, so it will likely rest in a completely different place after a few hours.
I would go for a heat lamp (75 to 100w). That's pretty minimal wattage and it's only on half of the time if that, so you shouldn't notice a significant expense. Not sure I understand the second question. Congrats on getting all of the stuff together and good luck!
No problem:). You could probably just cut out a larger one from wood or mdf like mine and glue/screw to the existing one. I think there is a little round nub on the existing one if I remember correctly. You could simply drill a hole where that would hit the one you cut out to allow the new arm to sit flat against the existing arm.
Being that they're commercial grade and you have a few to experiment with, you could use a rheostat (like a dimmer switch) and "dim" the input voltage to slow it down. The risk is you'd create a lot of heat and wear the motor out faster. If you don't run it continuously it shouldn't be a problem. The better/expensive way is to use an AC PWM or Pulse Width Modulator. It pulses the voltage at full current, doesn't create the extra heat, and slows her down without the excess load on the motor.
The stats sound good. Did they give you dimensions? That's be the only other consideration. You'd want enough room in order to get the turner out. You could always make a removable motor mount if the motor was on the large side. That way you could just take the motor assembly out to make enough space.
thanks i figured out the 2nd questine myself im probely sure it wont be the last questine i have for u becouse im interested in all your other vids thanks for all your help :).
@HomeDistiller It'll be fun too see how it does. The temp has been stable; between 99.5-100.7 since the eggs have been in. The light comes on at 99.5 and cut's off around 100, then heats up that last .4-.7 degree. This swing happens every 5 minutes or less, so the egg temp probably isn't varying more than a couple of tenths of a degree. I can't imagine that affecting things much. Hopefully the humidity will work out; it has stayed around 45-55%. I wish I had a Hova-Bator to do a side-by-side.
great effort but leaves me with a ton of questions could we SEE it actually working? put an egg in it and show the motor works? how did you set the timer?
@paco9045 I'm assuming that means 9 tenths of a turn and not 9 or 10 turns a minute. That might be a bit hard to work with as it would be hard to find a timer capable of running it for the exact amount of time needed to turn it half way around. Most timers will only run as little as 1 minute intervals, so you could run it for 6 or 7 minutes. That would make it turn around about 6 or 7 times and but end up on the other side. You have to constantly monitor it to make sure it stops when wanted.
@paco9045 It should say somewhere on the motor. I copied what you wrote and did a google search. It seems like most of the 42tyz motors that came up in the search were between 3-6 rpm. You could also connect a chord to it and plug it in. Then simply time how long it takes to go around once.
thank you 4 ur reply.....right now i am having problem with humidity,without keeping water i am getting 55% humidity...should i keep water????and how succesful is your incubator??
GREAT VIDEO: A timer for the motor is going to be at least $10 - and those only have a couple of on/off set points per 24 hrs - what you REALLY need is an intermittent timer (sprinkler timer) that comes on for a 5 min every hour, or 30 seconds every 3 hours - these are much more expensive. It would be cheaper to get a High Torque clock motor, those are only about $15-20 and will take a modest continual load. You could also direct a small circulating fan to blow on/towards the motor. Lastly, research shows continuous (at least 96 turns per day) is best, which is usually easier to set up with these motors - no timers needed.
My small motor had too low of torque for sliding 5 trays of eggs. I reduced the drag/friction using strips cut from those almost paper-thin cutting board things. I super-glued a strip onto the entire edge of the fixed tray frame at the edge where the sliding tray would make contact. Then, of course, I glued another strip on the underneath side of the sliding portion where it would slide along and, on top of the bottom strip. So, I have plastic-to-plastic mating surfaces Slick as owl poop!
So it just moves constantly but very slowly like 12 hours to do a full 4 inch circle so two turns every six hours. That is OK for the chicks to be constantly moved? In nature they get moved when the hen moves them which seems a more realistic emulation of nature to move them every six hours or so no? What hatch rate did you achieve with this method?
Hi mate love the idea and was considering making this to fit into a new incubator I am building, however I am unable to find a telescope clock motor in the UK which is where I am from live searched Ebay here but to no avail. any ideas what else could work for it. Tony
No worries at all:). There are two methods used widely for egg turning; holding them upright in a tray and tilting them, or laying them on their side and rolling them. Typically it's easier commercially to have them in trays that tilt so the whole tray can be removed later. It's more natural to roll them like a mother hen would, so I decided to try this method. Plus, my tray can be removed leaving the eggs in the incubator so you don't have to put them back in:).
Mine was only about $3 after shipping;). However, they can be hard to find. You can always find the hovabator replacement motors (which are a great option) on amazon. They're $16, but you won't need to by a timer as they turn so slowly you can leave them on all the time.
Thanks! I discovered you can buy the Hova Bator turner motor online for about $16. It's not cheap, but can suffice in a pinch. Try typing in "synchronous motor 1 rpm" into ebay uk. I was able to find a few that way:) I found a couple under that search that were 1/3 rpm, which is nice. The 1 rpm motors would be fine too. You would just need to find a way to run it in half minute increments, otherwise you might not be able to stop the turner at the other side of the incubator.
@HomeDistiller The verdict is in on the hatch rate:). I had 3 infertiles (yolk/egg white and no enlarged blastodisc). Those are a fertility and/or storage problem, not an incubator problem, so not counted in hatch rate. I also had 3 with partially developed chicks, each at different stages of life. I ended up with 18 hatched, not too wet nor sticky and no bloody navels or extra yolk. So that's an 85% hatch rate! After reading that hatcheries can't expect much more than 80%, I'm pretty stoked!
I have had roughly an 85% hatch rate. 55% humidity is pretty high as it is. I would leave the water out until the last 3 days, then spike the humidity to the 70%-80% range.
@paco9045 Mine actually spins spins all the way around as well, so you can do the same thing I did. The way I get it to stop is by using a programmable timer for lights, like the ones you can buy at home depot. Mine is a 1/10th rpm motor, so if I run it for 5 minutes it turns halfway around. I just have it run for 5 minutes every hour.
hye! can do i connect the motor with the arduino uno? how to programs it, because we need to turn the atleast 3 time a day..we just simply use the motor to turns it.
hi i finnaly got going on my incubator tonight i have most of the parts but a heat sorce.ive two questions for you=1..what would you recomend as a heat sorce that wont eat my electricity bill.....2=i got a 1 rpm turner and was just wondering when the turner is on is it not on 360 degrees so will the turner not jump up please help thanks
Tim, I'm trying to figure out a problem. I have a 1 rpm motor, and a 1 min. increment timer. Any suggestions on how to get a half turn (or anything other than a complete egg turn) with each power-up? I would think it best to rotate the egg and leave it in a different position than it started at the beginning of the rotation. I'm a newbie to incubating, but have used some of your tips and have a pretty precise temp control going now! Thanks! ~Scott
Those commercial turners that rock the egg as opposed to actually turning it are deigned around that principle. I agree with you, best to mock the chickens natural methods. They seem to know what's up! :-) Any issues with mildew or wood rot with the wood in all that humidity? Thanks for answering all my questions.
Not a worry at all. I didn't see any dumb questions;). I actually have a couple extra motors already, but thanks anyway! I bought a timer by GE that can do up to 20 cycles a day, so I set it up to run every hour and then for the last few cycles every hour and a half. The more the merrier on the turning, however, more than 3-4 times a day is just a bonus and not at all necessary. I'd say just to set it up how would make sense for your materials and aim for at least 3-4 times a day. Good luck!
No prob! Nothing with wood rot so far. It definitely helps to put those hardwood bumps on the bottom of the trays in case water spills. This way it won't be absorbed by the wood. It only takes maybe 15 mins to make one of those grates too, so if one goes bad it's cake to get another one ready to go.
You could do a couple of things here. If you leave the blue arm on it, you could take a small 2 1/4" or so long piece of wood/MDF, drill a hole in it that fits the blue arm's nub and then put a screw right behind the nub through the wood piece you made and into the plastic. That way you'd have two points holding it on to the blue arm. You'd need a hole on the other end of the wood piece for the turning screw as well.
Mine is on a timer so that it only rotates once an hour. The motor is only turned on for 5 mins to rotate the eggs each time. If you have a slow enough motor that turns once every 2 hours or so, you can leave it running all the time. That's what the commercial incubators do.
I usually buy them locally or on ebay. There are websites that sell them as well, but there prices tend to be a bit higher. They might have higher hatch rates when purchased from a legitimate company, but I've never tried 'em before so I can't say one way or the other.
Now that you have had a few hatches, is there anything about the design you would change? My understanding is that you are supposed to stand the eggs on their point during the first stage of the hatch. Do you think your success rate would be any better if they were on end?
I would probably add more vent holes and maybe mess with a slide-out tray system for humidity, but other than that, I'd leave it alone. I'm not sure why someone would say that the eggs should be end-up, as this is completely unnatural. You don't see chickens turning them end-up anyway:). I have heard some really strange practices that people swear by for increasing your hatch rate, but most of it has no basis in science and isn't done in commercial hatcheries, so I tend to keep it simple.
@paco9045 The key will be to reduce friction. I put polished hardwood plugs with round ends on each corner of the turner rail so that the contact points were very small and smooth. You could use anything here, even wheels or ball bearings if you wanted to step it up a notch. Mine had very low friction and would turn the tray with 24 eggs in it, so it shouldn't have a problem if you smooth out all surfaces and make the contact points small. Let me know how it goes or if you have any more ?s:)
Another option would be to take off the blue arm and simply cut a hole in the piece of wood/MDF to fit the circle with a flat shape that the arbor has. Yet another option would be using a 1/2" or so thick piece of wood, drilling a the diameter of the arbor without the flat, and screwing a screw into from the side to hit the flat on the arbor. Visuals would help here, but hopefully that'll help some:). Good luck!
Yeah, the telescope clock motor's are hit and miss. You can actually buy a hovabator turner replacement motor for about $17. I can't post a link per youtube, but type "hovabator turner replacement motor amazon" into google and the first link should be the amazon ad I found. The other option is to type "clock motor" into ebay and find one that looks similar to mine. If it runs on 120v and is pretty slow (1 rpm or less) it should work great. Good luck!
I like the rolling idea better because it is more natural, but there is probably very little difference to be honest. The swinging idea can take up a lot of space and makes removing the turner much more difficult because you have to take each egg out individually, take the turner out, then put all of the eggs back in. Whereas, with the rolling turner, you just lift out the turner and the eggs stay put.
Yes, that motor should do fine. Try to run it for just one minute every hour. If your timer won't go that low, pick an odd number of minutes (1,3,5,7, etc.). This way it will stop the turner on the opposite end that it started.
I can't say thank you enough for the detailed instructions given in the video! Priceless!
Very welcome and so glad this video is still helpful all these years later:) Best of luck on your turner build!
A most excellent and well explained tutorial!!! Very well done!!
Thanks a bunch!
@@tlgrimmy You're most welcome!!! My comment was definitely well deserved, you did great!!! I subbed!!!
Thanks. Plain, simple, cheap and easy to build. Great video and sound.
I just finished reading a very detailed article on incubating eggs. The author reveals that the huge hatcheries also incubate eggs in the horizontal position. Seems like you and the momma chickens had it right all along!! My motor is gonna be sliding 5 trays back and forth. I hope?? Ya think?
Thank you for sharing the egg turner build.
@DoubleQz Very welcome!:)
Oh I see now!!! Thanks so much. Yeah the rolling is better also because it allows the egg to be on its side, and thus healthy development of the egg. That's a really creative design -- most rolling designs I have seen have the egg just roll between the rods, but that means they only roll ~90 degrees.
out standing . we use the motors for automatic agitators for making paint. they run all the time with out a load . They just rotate and activate a small limit switch. I will hand it to you for being very creative. well done sir. thanks again .
Sounds like those automatic agitators are a great idea and nice and simple too. Thanks for watching!
That's perfect then. Some of the disco ball motors I'd looked at before were a good 4x the size of the motor in my videos, so I wasn't sure which one you found. I'd love to see some pictures of the finished product if you felt like it:). Good luck!
Thanks for taking the time to make the video.
This is awesome, thank you very much for the upload!!
#1 a complete list of materials in your description would have been nice.
#2 when you do a build....typically people want to see it work at the end after watching a whole video
#3 instructing how to set timers and other equipment is a must.
Your video was entitled "detailed instructions" unfortunately too many people just assume that the people they are teaching know even just the basics of what they are building. Too bad that's not the case. If people are looking for a tutorial it's usually a pretty sure bet that they don't have a clue what they are doing.
Otherwise.....good video
Two small pan head screws on each rail will also lessen friction during travel . Screw them up into the rail on the bottom side of course.
Yes, I think I ended up using rounded oak screw hole plugs for this purpose, but the screws would do the trick too.
Thanks! Yeah, I like the rolling idea and eggs being on their sides better. More natural, seems to be working well, and makes it convenient:).
Thanks! Superb demo.
Thank you so much for this. Very nicely explained and easy to follow instructions & explanations.
Marie White Very welcome and good luck on the build:).
Happy to report that I built an incubator with your idea and get 100% success rate. Your way of rolling the eggs is more natural as the same way as chicken does naturally. Since I only built with materials that I had on hand, I didn't use a thermostat but use a light dimmer instead and I didn't have a slow motor so I added a rod extending outside and move the rack by hand a few times a day. My next step is to build a PID temperature control, and the circuit for a stepping motor to move the rack back and fore since I have 2 stepping motors laying around and can put that to good use. Thanks for your inspiration for this project.
@mcmujose Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I would assume your motor should work fine. I'm a little confused about it being 12v, but still ac. Are you sure it's not a dc motor? I've only ever seen the 120v-ish ac motors and 12v dc. You have to find an adapter that would put out 12v AC, which I'm not sure where you'd find. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to see how it all turns out!:)
Glad to here the temps are nice and stable for ya! That is a tricky situation with the timer/motor combo. You could simply let it run for 10-15 minutes each hour. Even though they would likely come to a similar resting place, it should keep the yokes from attaching to the inside of the eggs. Also, it's likely your 1 rpm motor will not keep perfect time with your timer, so it will likely rest in a completely different place after a few hours.
I would go for a heat lamp (75 to 100w). That's pretty minimal wattage and it's only on half of the time if that, so you shouldn't notice a significant expense. Not sure I understand the second question. Congrats on getting all of the stuff together and good luck!
Thank you for the video. I bought the Hova-Bator motor. Any ideas on how to extend the motor arm that comes with the motor. It is about 1/2 inch.
THANKS A LOT MAN,REALLY HELPED..GOOD LUCK
No problem:). You could probably just cut out a larger one from wood or mdf like mine and glue/screw to the existing one. I think there is a little round nub on the existing one if I remember correctly. You could simply drill a hole where that would hit the one you cut out to allow the new arm to sit flat against the existing arm.
@mayberrygirl74 Anytime! Good luck making the turner. Glad to see some folks are finding this useful:).
really helpful, but can you list all the things you bought for making this egg turner, thanks!
Hi
I love your incubator and turner.....
I just wanted to know how you made the viewing glass on the lid,
and cover the edges of the plastic
thanks
do you take the egg turner out at al before letting the chickens hatch?
Being that they're commercial grade and you have a few to experiment with, you could use a rheostat (like a dimmer switch) and "dim" the input voltage to slow it down. The risk is you'd create a lot of heat and wear the motor out faster. If you don't run it continuously it shouldn't be a problem. The better/expensive way is to use an AC PWM or Pulse Width Modulator. It pulses the voltage at full current, doesn't create the extra heat, and slows her down without the excess load on the motor.
I'm sure there is a way to do it, but I'm not very familiar with how to program arduinos. They are awesome and could definitely work for this.
The stats sound good. Did they give you dimensions? That's be the only other consideration. You'd want enough room in order to get the turner out. You could always make a removable motor mount if the motor was on the large side. That way you could just take the motor assembly out to make enough space.
Great video. Really liked your ideal. Only thing is wish you had showed it inside the incubator working. Thanks
Actually, my incubator video shows it working with eggs and everything:). This was just a follow up video to show folks how to make just the turner.
Lol, didn't realize my wife was logged in when I replied;). That Cara's Quick Tips reply was from me.
Cara's Quick Tips If you have a link I would like to watch it. Thanks again.
Larry342516 Homemade Incubator with Fan, Thermostat, and Automatic Egg Turner :)
Larry342516
Thanks to giving me a good idea for business
thanks i figured out the 2nd questine myself im probely sure it wont be the last questine i have for u becouse im interested in all your other vids thanks for all your help :).
@HomeDistiller It'll be fun too see how it does. The temp has been stable; between 99.5-100.7 since the eggs have been in. The light comes on at 99.5 and cut's off around 100, then heats up that last .4-.7 degree. This swing happens every 5 minutes or less, so the egg temp probably isn't varying more than a couple of tenths of a degree. I can't imagine that affecting things much. Hopefully the humidity will work out; it has stayed around 45-55%. I wish I had a Hova-Bator to do a side-by-side.
great effort but leaves me with a ton of questions
could we SEE it actually working?
put an egg in it and show the motor works?
how did you set the timer?
thanks for your help
tony
How far apart would you put the dowel rod for quail eggs?
@paco9045 I'm assuming that means 9 tenths of a turn and not 9 or 10 turns a minute. That might be a bit hard to work with as it would be hard to find a timer capable of running it for the exact amount of time needed to turn it half way around. Most timers will only run as little as 1 minute intervals, so you could run it for 6 or 7 minutes. That would make it turn around about 6 or 7 times and but end up on the other side. You have to constantly monitor it to make sure it stops when wanted.
@paco9045 It should say somewhere on the motor. I copied what you wrote and did a google search. It seems like most of the 42tyz motors that came up in the search were between 3-6 rpm. You could also connect a chord to it and plug it in. Then simply time how long it takes to go around once.
No prob man, good luck!
thank you 4 ur reply.....right now i am having problem with humidity,without keeping water i am getting 55% humidity...should i keep water????and how succesful is your incubator??
GREAT VIDEO: A timer for the motor is going to be at least $10 - and those only have a couple of on/off set points per 24 hrs - what you REALLY need is an intermittent timer (sprinkler timer) that comes on for a 5 min every hour, or 30 seconds every 3 hours - these are much more expensive. It would be cheaper to get a High Torque clock motor, those are only about $15-20 and will take a modest continual load. You could also direct a small circulating fan to blow on/towards the motor. Lastly, research shows continuous (at least 96 turns per day) is best, which is usually easier to set up with these motors - no timers needed.
Ok, thanks so much! sorry, in the video it just looks like the eggs are moving laterally. How are they turning?
My small motor had too low of torque for sliding 5 trays of eggs. I reduced the drag/friction using strips cut from those almost paper-thin cutting board things. I super-glued a strip onto the entire edge of the fixed tray frame at the edge where the sliding tray would make contact. Then, of course, I glued another strip on the underneath side of the sliding portion where it would slide along and, on top of the bottom strip. So, I have plastic-to-plastic mating surfaces Slick as owl poop!
So it just moves constantly but very slowly like 12 hours to do a full 4 inch circle so two turns every six hours. That is OK for the chicks to be constantly moved? In nature they get moved when the hen moves them which seems a more realistic emulation of nature to move them every six hours or so no? What hatch rate did you achieve with this method?
Hi mate love the idea and was considering making this to fit into a new incubator I am building, however I am unable to find a telescope clock motor in the UK which is where I am from live searched Ebay here but to no avail. any ideas what else could work for it.
Tony
what kind of timer did you use?
No worries at all:). There are two methods used widely for egg turning; holding them upright in a tray and tilting them, or laying them on their side and rolling them. Typically it's easier commercially to have them in trays that tilt so the whole tray can be removed later. It's more natural to roll them like a mother hen would, so I decided to try this method. Plus, my tray can be removed leaving the eggs in the incubator so you don't have to put them back in:).
Mine was only about $3 after shipping;). However, they can be hard to find. You can always find the hovabator replacement motors (which are a great option) on amazon. They're $16, but you won't need to by a timer as they turn so slowly you can leave them on all the time.
Thanks! I discovered you can buy the Hova Bator turner motor online for about $16. It's not cheap, but can suffice in a pinch. Try typing in "synchronous motor 1 rpm" into ebay uk. I was able to find a few that way:) I found a couple under that search that were 1/3 rpm, which is nice. The 1 rpm motors would be fine too. You would just need to find a way to run it in half minute increments, otherwise you might not be able to stop the turner at the other side of the incubator.
@HomeDistiller That's a great idea and might as well use free stuff as opposed to buying. It would probably have significantly more torque as well.
@HomeDistiller The verdict is in on the hatch rate:). I had 3 infertiles (yolk/egg white and no enlarged blastodisc). Those are a fertility and/or storage problem, not an incubator problem, so not counted in hatch rate. I also had 3 with partially developed chicks, each at different stages of life. I ended up with 18 hatched, not too wet nor sticky and no bloody navels or extra yolk. So that's an 85% hatch rate! After reading that hatcheries can't expect much more than 80%, I'm pretty stoked!
nice bro m going to try it now......
To decrease the friction you could use brass tacks. It wouldn't raise it very much at all and do quite nicely.
Or a caphead screw for additional height.
do i need to alter the speed or can it run as is
You can get the dimmer switches at Home Depot and the AC voltage PWMs on ebay. I'd try the dimmer switch first as it's easy and cheap.
@tlgrimmy well done.. good to see you had a sucessfull first run :D
I have had roughly an 85% hatch rate. 55% humidity is pretty high as it is. I would leave the water out until the last 3 days, then spike the humidity to the 70%-80% range.
what do you think,swinging or rolling the eggs are better?hoping 4 ur reply
were did u get yours at
I would love to see it actually working.
thank you !
Thank you a lot!
@paco9045 Mine actually spins spins all the way around as well, so you can do the same thing I did. The way I get it to stop is by using a programmable timer for lights, like the ones you can buy at home depot. Mine is a 1/10th rpm motor, so if I run it for 5 minutes it turns halfway around. I just have it run for 5 minutes every hour.
hye! can do i connect the motor with the arduino uno? how to programs it, because we need to turn the atleast 3 time a day..we just simply use the motor to turns it.
hi i finnaly got going on my incubator tonight i have most of the parts but a heat sorce.ive two questions for you=1..what would you recomend as a heat sorce that wont eat my electricity bill.....2=i got a 1 rpm turner and was just wondering when the turner is on is it not on 360 degrees so will the turner not jump up please help thanks
Tim, I'm trying to figure out a problem. I have a 1 rpm motor, and a 1 min. increment timer. Any suggestions on how to get a half turn (or anything other than a complete egg turn) with each power-up? I would think it best to rotate the egg and leave it in a different position than it started at the beginning of the rotation. I'm a newbie to incubating, but have used some of your tips and have a pretty precise temp control going now! Thanks! ~Scott
have you figured out a way to build a double layered turnner for one bator?
I have a cooler-bator and need more room to put more eggs.
Julie Draper make 2 of them, stack them, and use a really long screw
Thank you so much! :)
Cool! I'm going to use old umbrella or bicycle spokes. Stay tuned!
Maybe the motor and long slot could be outside the incubator. Use a connecting rod to link the motion to inside with a spoke?
Great idea and best of luck on the build!
Those commercial turners that rock the egg as opposed to actually turning it are deigned around that principle. I agree with you, best to mock the chickens natural methods. They seem to know what's up! :-)
Any issues with mildew or wood rot with the wood in all that humidity?
Thanks for answering all my questions.
Not a worry at all. I didn't see any dumb questions;). I actually have a couple extra motors already, but thanks anyway! I bought a timer by GE that can do up to 20 cycles a day, so I set it up to run every hour and then for the last few cycles every hour and a half. The more the merrier on the turning, however, more than 3-4 times a day is just a bonus and not at all necessary. I'd say just to set it up how would make sense for your materials and aim for at least 3-4 times a day. Good luck!
where do you buy fertilized eggs from
@paco9045 I bought mine at home depot for about $18. It's made by GE and is programmable down to the minute. Great little unit!
No prob! Nothing with wood rot so far. It definitely helps to put those hardwood bumps on the bottom of the trays in case water spills. This way it won't be absorbed by the wood. It only takes maybe 15 mins to make one of those grates too, so if one goes bad it's cake to get another one ready to go.
Okay! I'm having trouble visualizing that -- can you link me to a video of the egg turner in motion?
You could do a couple of things here. If you leave the blue arm on it, you could take a small 2 1/4" or so long piece of wood/MDF, drill a hole in it that fits the blue arm's nub and then put a screw right behind the nub through the wood piece you made and into the plastic. That way you'd have two points holding it on to the blue arm. You'd need a hole on the other end of the wood piece for the turning screw as well.
That motor... Does he rotating all time? I mean like clock? And does that good for chickens (rotating all time)?
I can't imagine this system in action.
Mine is on a timer so that it only rotates once an hour. The motor is only turned on for 5 mins to rotate the eggs each time. If you have a slow enough motor that turns once every 2 hours or so, you can leave it running all the time. That's what the commercial incubators do.
I usually buy them locally or on ebay. There are websites that sell them as well, but there prices tend to be a bit higher. They might have higher hatch rates when purchased from a legitimate company, but I've never tried 'em before so I can't say one way or the other.
Thanks!
very good
Now that you have had a few hatches, is there anything about the design you would change? My understanding is that you are supposed to stand the eggs on their point during the first stage of the hatch. Do you think your success rate would be any better if they were on end?
tell me how did you give ventilation..?my cooler size is 14'*16',how many holes should i provide?
I would probably add more vent holes and maybe mess with a slide-out tray system for humidity, but other than that, I'd leave it alone. I'm not sure why someone would say that the eggs should be end-up, as this is completely unnatural. You don't see chickens turning them end-up anyway:). I have heard some really strange practices that people swear by for increasing your hatch rate, but most of it has no basis in science and isn't done in commercial hatcheries, so I tend to keep it simple.
@paco9045 The key will be to reduce friction. I put polished hardwood plugs with round ends on each corner of the turner rail so that the contact points were very small and smooth. You could use anything here, even wheels or ball bearings if you wanted to step it up a notch. Mine had very low friction and would turn the tray with 24 eggs in it, so it shouldn't have a problem if you smooth out all surfaces and make the contact points small. Let me know how it goes or if you have any more ?s:)
Another option would be to take off the blue arm and simply cut a hole in the piece of wood/MDF to fit the circle with a flat shape that the arbor has. Yet another option would be using a 1/2" or so thick piece of wood, drilling a the diameter of the arbor without the flat, and screwing a screw into from the side to hit the flat on the arbor. Visuals would help here, but hopefully that'll help some:). Good luck!
Very welcome:)
Probably 1" would do it. You's have to account for the width of the dowel though, so 1 1/4 inches if using 1/4" dowel rod.
No problem:). Anytime
I am having a 2.5 rpm motor with a timer....will it be suitable for this egg turner???pls reply
HOW MUCH EGG WIDTH
Helpful.
Thanks for watching and good luck with your build!
Yeah, the telescope clock motor's are hit and miss. You can actually buy a hovabator turner replacement motor for about $17. I can't post a link per youtube, but type "hovabator turner replacement motor amazon" into google and the first link should be the amazon ad I found. The other option is to type "clock motor" into ebay and find one that looks similar to mine. If it runs on 120v and is pretty slow (1 rpm or less) it should work great. Good luck!
I like the rolling idea better because it is more natural, but there is probably very little difference to be honest. The swinging idea can take up a lot of space and makes removing the turner much more difficult because you have to take each egg out individually, take the turner out, then put all of the eggs back in. Whereas, with the rolling turner, you just lift out the turner and the eggs stay put.
thank you
No problem and thanks for watching!
I've actually never owned one, but I saw a couple of Hovabator turner videos on youtube. Sorry I couldn't be of more help and good luck!
I ordered the motor from amazon, the plastic motor mount turner is small, how can I screw the arm on to it? thx
Yes, that motor should do fine. Try to run it for just one minute every hour. If your timer won't go that low, pick an odd number of minutes (1,3,5,7, etc.). This way it will stop the turner on the opposite end that it started.
Excellent! Very good tutorial!
Thanks for watching and good luck on your turner!