Anyone ever use an oven rack to hold eggs in their incubator?

[QuailQT]

I want to build my own incubator in the worst kind of way! I had a thought this morning about using old oven racks (after forgetting that I had something in the oven before preheating it and melted it all over my rack-though it may have been a blessing in disguise!)

Position-tilting forward slight bit-checking to see if the eggs roll forward and approximately how many eggs it would hold. (Looks like enough for me x2 or 3 racks (of course).

Position-extreme tilt- eggs didn't roll and are supported by back railing. When sitting normally, they didn't roll around so I thought it would be a good item to use-especially with how many eggs I want it to hold. I just placed bantam eggs between the larger eggs and it looks like it would be perfect!

Now, wondering about hatch time though-wouldn't I need something for the bottom to support them so they could get some footing? OR should I use a tray with that spongy drawer liner so they have something to fall through, land softly without the egg mess and not roll around the other eggs? Thinking that would be better, but

Also thought that if I didn't have the racks completely full, (really though, like that's ever going to happen

), I could just use some wooden wedges to place in between the wires in front of the eggs so they didn't roll forward too much. Looks like each rack would hold approx 88 eggs- LF/bantam together. Could stuff sponges in the wider side rails and/or place duck or goose eggs in there too I guess. (looked too big for the chicken eggs)

Now to hold the racks, thought that I could just install heavy duty cup hooks on the front and back of the cabinet to hold the racks at various positions for turning, using a permanently attached clothes hanger wire (on the front of the rack) so that I could just pull it up or let it down and hook it into the different cup hooks for support when I want to turn the eggs. (I would only need to move the fronts of the racks-leaving the back stationery.

Am I wasting my time thinking over this idea or could it work? Would love to hear if it has worked for others or if I'm making things too hard or over-thinking this (tend to do that). Anyone else try this before?

Thanks!

 

[QuailQT]

Anyone at all... have any advice?

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I think our idea has merit for turning the eggs..
However,, letting the chicks hatch in the racks would not eliminate the egg shell mess at the bottom.. there will be thousands of tiny shards of egg shell broken loose during pipping.. they will all end up on the bottom of the cabinet..

I just cleanded my hatcher out today,, I am speaking from experience.. It is not a real bad thing, just something to be aware of.. I use those non slip rubber shelf liners for in the bottom of my hatcher.. they keep the chicks from getting splayed legs.. we also use puppy liners in the bottom of the brooders for the same reason,, and it helps in cleaning the brooder..

 

[jenlynn4]

thats a cool idea!

 

[jvls1942]

I thought about it a little more..

for larger eggs, just bend the every other row of wires to make the gap wider your capacity might be reduced, but that is what you have to give up for larger eggs..

You could also make wire mesh channels for the larger eggs and fasten those to the racks.. that is what the Hova and LG turners do..

I like the idea of using the wire in front to raise and lower the rack. You can drill a hole in the top of the cabinet to run your wire through, so you would not have to open the cabinet to turn the eggs..

just attach a washer to the end of the wire and hook it onto a nail to hold the trays in the UP position.. and then let the washer just rest on the hole for the DOWN position..

 

[aprophet]

I think Lyons uses a similar system but instead of tilting them they have hardware cloth under the rack and just push the rack back and forth the hardware cloth kina holds the eggs the rack rolls them a bit

 

[QuailQT]

Quote:
good idea! Thanks!
.

 

[QuailQT]

Since last checking in, I found an old toy box at a garage sale for a BUCK! It has the lid hinges, but no lid-no problem though! Jim is pretty handy and said he would make me a new door with a large oval in it. My new toy box measures 32" tall, 20" wide and is 15.5" deep. I'm thinking that it will be the perfect size (for now, anyway

. I've decided to use something similar to oven racks, since I haven't found any that are small enough yet. So far, I painted the inside of my toy box, though it didn't cover up something green that was on the bottom and side of the one corner. It just smeared it...oh well. :O(
I will be adding a BYC page to my profile for my project when it's all done. I really like the idea of the clothes hanger and the washer. I really want to make it so that I never have to open it except for candling. I want to be able to add the water from the outside too.

Oh! Just a few days ago, my mom's electric wall oven quit working right. I called dibs on it before she threw it away! I'm hoping that I can rig it up to use as a hatcher. I haven't really looked at it closely yet and I'm not sure if it would work. The racks and rack supports would already be there and I could just place non-slip liner over the racks for support. I would also have a light that's already in place for watching the show too! I should really investigate that a little more before getting too excited about using it.

That would be one oven that I wouldn't mind cleaning afterward though.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
you might want to check of that is a 220V or 110V oven.. either one should work, but you would have to have the proper wiring for it..