Building my own incubator - hatching stage?

[PeterDenmark]

Hello.

This is my first forum please, so excuse me, if this has been discussed to death. I just couldn't come up with a search term, that narrowed it down, to where i could find an answer to my question.

I have gathered all the electronics, and building materials, to start building my fully automatic cabinet incubator with room for about 90-100 eggs.

But i am a little confused as to how people manage the mess and dander fallout from the other eggs, when using an incubator with egg trays in multiple layers?

I see the commercial versions have trays in the bottom, for hatching chicks, but the logistics of that eludes me.

How can let's say 3 layers of eggs, on 3 egg turning trays, that pretty much uses the same area as the footprint of the machine times 3, fit into the bottom of the machine? Do they have stacks of incubator trays in the bottom? Will that not hurt the temperature distribution?

I could see it being possible to take out the egg trays that would sit on wire mesh on 3 different tilting shelves, and switch them for something with a solid bottom, and mesh sides, on the 18th day, but it seem a little clumsy.

Right now i'm leaning towards building a separate hatchery incubator. The hatching process is messy, and keeping that in a totally different machine actually seems easier right now, than having to build a machine that can do it all. Or am i over thinking it?

One other advantage i could see with a separate hatcher, would be that it would be possible to add eggs after a batch has been started, since the different moisture levels would also be kept separate, and i wouldn't have to deal with one set having to be turned, and another not.

Yes - building an extra unit is more work, but with the price of pretty good temperature, and humidity controllers, it would cost a lot.

But if you think it's totally overkill to have 2 machines, could you please share how you handle the hatching process, with a multiple layer machine.

Hope my question makes sense. English is not my first language, so conveying my meaning concisely is proving a challenge for me .

Thank you.

 

[mill-j]

I have a GQF sportsman. The hatch tray holds one tray of eggs so you have to set your eggs about 4 days apart to give the previous tray time to hatch.

This article has helped me:

https://www.google.com/url?q=http:/...ggpMAA&usg=AFQjCNF1a9F-bba1UcGVsxbvkRPlIHh5Og

 

[PeterDenmark]

Wow - thank you very much. I thought i had emptied the internet for incubator plans, and then you send me such a gem.

I will definitely build a dedicated hatcher. Trying to balance humidity and temperature and cleaning out mess is too much of a balancing act for a newb like me. I'm a electronics hoarder, so building a second unit won't cost that much more.

On thing that seems a little counter intuitive to me, is that the fan in the plans blows the air downwards. I would think that blowing the hot air through the false back, and up through the eggs would give a more even temperature distribution? Or is the "downblow" setup the norm?

 

[mill-j]

That article explains how and why it is like it is. I my incubator the air gets heated at the top, blows over water to the front, down to the bottom, and up the back, I can keep it very accurate. The reason you shouldn't heat at the bottom is that heat rises. that means eggs at the top will fry while the bottom is cold.

 

[PeterDenmark]

Once again thank you. I my eagerness to answer, i read the article quickly. I will have an in depth look later.

The reason that i thought that circulating the air bottom to top, is that intuitively the air cools along it's path, so would have thought that the air stream hitting the bottom eggs first, was the logical path.
Most german incubators (brutmachine) do it that way. Like this one:
http://lauschner.de/Brutmaschinex.htm

But again - i will dive into the reasons given in the article, and make up my mind.

 

[mill-j]

I guess bottom or top wont make too much of a diference as long as your circulation is right.

Let us know what you come up with.

 

[PeterDenmark]

I will keep you posted .