Chic Chick 'Bator *UPDATED*

[ajcress]

I just found this thread am am wondering since it has been a while, did anyone figure out a way to make an auto egg turner? I am going to the hardware store today sometime and get all of the things that I do not have in an attempt to make my own bator. Borrowing all of your ideas of course!!!

I hope that everything turns out good. Even my husband, who is most of the time understanding, says that he will help built this. I thought that it would be good for my 6 year old son, 13 year old cousin emily and my husband and I to have some well deserved family time (and still be around chickens!!) Shame on me

Any last minute items and tips would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks for everyone being soooo nice to us who are clueless and trying to get started.

 

[siz8003]

so then if the swing is between 95.4 and 100.2 is that gonna be fine? I am gonna squeek it up a little but am i good?

 

[MissPrissy]

I have to presume that because it is winter the temps you all are noting in the swing are far different than the temp swing in the summer.

Try wrapping your bator box in an old blanket to better insulate and see if your temps stop swinging.

You may have to try a different watt bulb.

All of my incubators have a different wattage for the bulbs and different placement of the components. You have to play around with what you have until you get it just right.

 

[siz8003]

I have used 25 40 and 60 wat bulbs i think its the water haeter thermo i have but i have tried 2 and a dimmer switch

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Great thread. Just one note, in my incubator I have 2 light bulbs so that if one bulb burns out when I'm not home the whole thing is not a disaster. Also the bator recovers faster after opening, and the eggs closest to a single light bulb did not give me a good hatch rate, it seemed to me to always be those eggs that never hatched. Also the more heat power you have the more you can 'afford' ventilation, and more is better. I increased my hatch rate by throwing away half the plugs, using the other half to control humidity. Especially with a styrofoam box I suggest you have at least a couple holes with no plugs, ventilation is critical.

If I did it again I'd have all the electrical stuff in the lid like the hovabator. I think being that far from the egg is good, and it would all lift off and be out of the way while I was setting and even better, cleaning. Safer for the chicks too if you use it as a hatcher as well. If I had a front and top opening one, like the cabinette one Cindi built the top of the back wall would be good.

For a turning I just tilted the whole bator. Like you Miss Prissy I rarely needed water so I put one edge of the bator up on a small peice of 2x4 and then the other edge. Shortly after a few hatches like that I read a study done on no turn hatching and the results were basically the same if the eggs were not turned after day 5 so I just quit turning after the first week, couple extra days to be sure. I did not see any changes in my hatches.

 

[RepoBob]

Please tell us more about this no turning hatching. I've never heard of it. I'm in the process of building a bator and am racking my brain on how to build a turner. If it only has to be done for the first five days, building a turner may not be necessary.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

If you play with Google for a while you will find lots of studies about turning. Dr. Salisbury and Dr. Grier are 2 names that keep coming up. Grier is involved in the saving of rare falcons and hawks but all the studies he did to raise the hatch rates were done with chickens, happy for us.

The broiler industry has done tons of research into hatchability too, to save them money, but I tend to disregard that a bit since they are selective breeding for big meat chicks it stands to reason for me that they will have more malpositions, which is what their studies show. Interesting that they feel Dr. Salisbury bred selectivly for hatchability without turning....



Here are a few I found fast, but there are more.

http://www.cababstractsplus.org/google/abstract.asp?AcNo=20043202190

http://ps.fass.org/cgi/content/full/85/8/1433

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5267/is_199609/ai_n20452527

Anyway I can only tell you that I increased the angle I turned (the edge of the 2x4 instead of the side) and did not turn after a week about, and never saw a change in my hatch rate. With my Americanas I had a very high hatch rate and great chick vigor, about 98% success, and with my Barred Rocks no matter what about 75% hatch with a weak chick it seemed in each batch. So for sure turning is not everything, and I came to think it was overrated. When I candled the first time, if I saw started chicks moving well, you know that pulsating swimmer stage, I quit turning. The goal is to prevent the chick from sticking to the egg shell and anything moving like that can't stick I figure, and will pick it's own hatch position.

Consider too that if you open the incubator and handle the eggs your introducing bacteria each time. Better off I think if your going to turn to turn the whole bator. You need to consider this in how you set up your water so it's not spilling.

45 degrees is a long way to go past 0 on each turn, that's really hard to acheive in any sort of set up. One incubator you can buy has a floor that moves back and forth, the eggs are on the floor and between the eggs are rods. So the floor moves the eggs roll over since they can't go with the floor, by knowing the radius of the average egg you can roll it right over. Then you push the floor back they roll back. Making a floor like that might be easy compared to tilting more than 45 degrees. Having the push/pull for the floor outside the incubator would prevent contamination.

Hope that helps, happy Googling!

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

I forgot the most important part!!

When your designing your incubator leave room for the web cam and some sorta mount. We had some great hatch parties in the chat room at the old BYC, people would post the web cam location on the net and we would have 2 windows open, chatting and watching. I left mine running for the hatch day and got worldwide watchers on the Science and Nature website. You have to apply to post your webcam there, but it was fun. There are many free open webcam broadcast sites, but you need a high speed internet hook-up. Not sure I can do it here now.

 

[hart31]

I built a simple rack which is positioned about 5/8 inch above the floor of the incubator. It has cross pieces just a little farther apart than most extra large eggs. Attached to the rack is a thin rod which protrudes out the end of the bator. It has a simple drawer knob on it and I hope it will work to roll the eggs back and forth by pushing the knob in one time and pulling it out the next.

I tried a couple of eggs out fo the refrigerator and it seemed to work when I was testing it.

I may need to make a rack with the cross pieces closer together for the banty eggs.
Care will have to be used because the cross pieces are spaced wider than the width of the eggs and you could crack or break an egg if you changed direction and pushed or pulled too fast.

I have eggs coming by mail this week and now the weatherman says we will have a high of -15 F on tuesday. I'm not sure what to do about them. If I asked the sender to hold them a couple of days our weather should be warmer but the most likely place for them to get set in a cold building or truck is probably Fargo and the cold weather will probably hit them a day or two later.

 

[RepoBob]

Thanks Adopted. Once I get my bator running I have to do a test. Some really persuading studies in the links you posted. Sounds very interesting.