Cabinet incubator question I can not figure out.

[ShaneZ]

First, I am not really new here. I been reading here for a couple years. Never needed to ask a question cause the answers have always been here if you search hard enough. But I have finally came across one I can not find the answer to.

I am building my own cabinet / wine cooler incubator. I think I have it all figured out but one thing. I have also viewed 100's of other home built and professional cabinets. Most all have a few racks / turners for eggs from top down. Then on the bottom there is a "hatching" tray / box.

My question is this... lets say you have different species of eggs loaded on each rack / turner tray or if you load one turner tray the first week and the following week you have enough eggs saved up to load the second rack / turner. (The Sportsman 1502 even mentions this)

"Set the eggs each week or so and then hatch the oldest setting eggs at the same time. Settings are rotated among the three turning trays so that the hatching tray can accept the eggs from one of the setting trays each cycle."

Or even say you have one the larger commercial built incubators that will hold 100's of eggs on several large racks / trays with the one small hatching box at the bottom that won't even hold all the eggs in the trays at once.

How do you / they keep the eggs incubating at 35% humidity but the eggs on "lockdown" in the hatching box at 65 - 75% humidity?

None I have seen have a divider from turners to hatching box with separate heat and humidity controls. Its all inside one cabinet.

 

[Rose Quartz]

First, I am not really new here. I been reading here for a couple years. Never needed to ask a question cause the answers have always been here if you search hard enough. But I have finally came across one I can not find the answer to.

I am building my own cabinet / wine cooler incubator. I think I have it all figured out but one thing. I have also viewed 100's of other home built and professional cabinets. Most all have a few racks / turners for eggs from top down. Then on the bottom there is a "hatching" tray / box.

My question is this... lets say you have different species of eggs loaded on each rack / turner tray or if you load one turner tray the first week and the following week you have enough eggs saved up to load the second rack / turner. (The Sportsman 1502 even mentions this)

"Set the eggs each week or so and then hatch the oldest setting eggs at the same time. Settings are rotated among the three turning trays so that the hatching tray can accept the eggs from one of the setting trays each cycle."

Or even say you have one the larger commercial built incubators that will hold 100's of eggs on several large racks / trays with the one small hatching box at the bottom that won't even hold all the eggs in the trays at once.

How do you / they keep the eggs incubating at 35% humidity but the eggs on "lockdown" in the hatching box at 65 - 75% humidity?

None I have seen have a divider from turners to hatching box with separate heat and humidity controls. Its all inside one cabinet.

Without that area being seperated somehow you cant. Most likely they would run it at a higher humidity like 55 -60 percent and just hope for the best. Thats low humidity for hatching but its do-able. And higher humidity for setting but so long as it isnt all the time the other eggs might be ok.

 

[Sneebsey]

Yes, I think that's the gist of it. I've never cared for the idea of doing both in the same unit; there is too much of a difference between the ideal conditions for hatching and those for setting to allow for the maximum live-hatch possible. You could make a separate hatcher or somehow segregate the hatching area within the unit? I generally either hatch in my 20 year old table-top or just fill the entire cabinet up and hope that someone will want some chicks.

 

[ShaneZ]

Yea, it seems them were going to be my options. My idea was to use one of the glass shelves that come with the beverage cooler / fridge for the very bottom and 3 wire shelves above to sit the egg turners on. The factory glass shelves were designed with a small space from the back wall and front glass door for air circulation.

I was wondering if one them small "bottle cap humidifiers" hooked to something like a SHT2000 humidity controller below the glass shelf (down with the hatching box) may hold more humidity below the glass shelf and less in the upper turning trays? But with the fans spreading equal heat inside the entire cooler, I would assume its going to distribute the humidity the same.

I guess I keep pondering on my options. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Sneebsey]

That could work; my aim would be to segregate those two areas as much as possible, with regard to humidity. I'm unsure how you'd get to a design that would allow those two environments to exist in one unit, with one heating element, however. The glass shelf sounds like a good idea to trap the moisture.

 

[Wilder]

Use for to fill the gaps. Air conditioner/window insulating foam should be about right. Available at Walmart, Ace, etc.
This stuff is an extremely efficient bacteria trap, so wrap it in plastic, clean and sterilize, or discard between hatches.

 

[Mosey2003]

Most people that do staggered hatches like that use a separate hatcher. From all I've ever read, the incubator with the hatching tray is meant to be used for one hatch at a time if you actually *hatch* in it.