Building a hatcher

[The Moonshiner]

After testing a lot of designs I settled on a cabinet with heaters, fans humidity pan on the top shelf and egg trays below. I was selling them at the time. The typical arrangement i'm sure you've seen. The number of fans, size and speed will determine how well the air flows. In this style cabinet the air flows in a loop. More of a directed air flow verses the chaotic air flow of the fans mounted on the top of a box. Eithe will work. If its you first build I would keep it simple. I'll be interested in what you come up with.

I'm interested in what you've already come up with.
Are you talking multiple stacked trays as a hatcher?
Always stayed away from that idea just because didn't want trays of hatching eggs hatching above others. Common is wire mesh bottoms on the trays. That lends to too much dropping on below trays.
With any solid bottom trays I am wary of getting good air flow throughout.

 

[Kung_pao]

Those are good points, I hadn’t thought of that at all.

 

[Kung_pao]

I have my sportsman 1502 hatching trays and had thought to just model my incubator around its dimensions. I would assume it would hold 90 eggs at least. I’ve never filled it up before.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I have my sportsman 1502 hatching trays and had thought to just model my incubator around its dimensions. I would assume it would hold 90 eggs at least. I’ve never filled it up before.

Have you saw my pepsi-bator?

 

[Kung_pao]

No I haven’t, I’ll do a quick search.

 

[Kung_pao]

No I haven’t, I’ll do a quick search.

I found mention of it but haven’t found any pictures.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I found mention of it but haven’t found any pictures.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-moonshiners-pepsi-cooler-incubator.76077/

 

[Kung_pao]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-moonshiners-pepsi-cooler-incubator.76077/

Now that is one slick looking contraption. I love how it looks. Do you think with the two fans top mounted that I could get my hatchet to work anywhere as great as something like yours? I’ll test the temperatures all over it when I get it done and if there are any cold or hot spots I’ll have to go from there. Any idea on how tall I should make the Hatcher? How high up should the heaters and fans be above the eggs? This might be another trial and error thing to experiment with.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I had a sportsman back in the day when they were the wood versions. I later made a couple cabinet incubators with the basic same set up. They all worked well.
With the pepsi-bator I needed to work within the box. I always went with a sportsman like set up cause it was proven but began to wonder if it would work better with the heat source at the bottom since heat raises. It was an incubator only so not any worry about hatching gunk dropping down onto anything.
With that I rethought, overthought then rethought everything again. I don't know any specifics of what works best. Of what is needed exactly. I did and do the trail and error game.
For my incubator I turned everything upside down and inside out. The heat source and thermostat is on the bottom. So is the water pan. I had the fan I put up top and it blows upwards so it's pulling air in and blowing it up then down inside the false wall. I put the second fan at the bottom just so it would blow across the heat source and with the size I thought maybe two fans in two locations would work better.
Everything work better then I even expected with a slightly lower temp at the top. The small bulb at the top evened it all out.
From this build and my past builds I've discovered one thing. It's not rocket science. I think very different set ups can work just as well as others.
You have your basics. Heat, air flow and ventilation. I think you just need to get a box size and configuration and go from there. The bigger the more challenges.
I think the two fans at the top would work potentially. Have an idea on size of the whole thing? Still planning on using your hatching tray or trays? Figure out that then go from there.

 

[Kung_pao]

I had a sportsman back in the day when they were the wood versions. I later made a couple cabinet incubators with the basic same set up. They all worked well.
With the pepsi-bator I needed to work within the box. I always went with a sportsman like set up cause it was proven but began to wonder if it would work better with the heat source at the bottom since heat raises. It was an incubator only so not any worry about hatching gunk dropping down onto anything.
With that I rethought, overthought then rethought everything again. I don't know any specifics of what works best. Of what is needed exactly. I did and do the trail and error game.
For my incubator I turned everything upside down and inside out. The heat source and thermostat is on the bottom. So is the water pan. I had the fan I put up top and it blows upwards so it's pulling air in and blowing it up then down inside the false wall. I put the second fan at the bottom just so it would blow across the heat source and with the size I thought maybe two fans in two locations would work better.
Everything work better then I even expected with a slightly lower temp at the top. The small bulb at the top evened it all out.
From this build and my past builds I've discovered one thing. It's not rocket science. I think very different set ups can work just as well as others.
You have your basics. Heat, air flow and ventilation. I think you just need to get a box size and configuration and go from there. The bigger the more challenges.
I think the two fans at the top would work potentially. Have an idea on size of the whole thing? Still planning on using your hatching tray or trays? Figure out that then go from there.

The trays are 24.5”X14”. I’m not sure how many eggs that would hold but I’m guessing 75? Probably big enough for this first hatcher lol. So inside area 26”X15.5”? I don’t want it to be too tight of a fit. Height I’m still thinking about. I think a little higher up would give more even coverage to the eggs as the warm air is blown down.