Dedicated Hatcher

[HatchCraft]

That should work well . Maino Incubators use this system. I watched a video where a company that raises broiler chickens has developed a system that dispensed with hatchers all together. They transport the eggs at 18 days to the chicken house and turn up the heat. No supplemental moisture . Egg hatch in a vertical position in the egg setting trays suspended several feet above the floor on a track. No hatcher needed. When the chicks hatch they tumble to the floor and begin eating and drinking.



Maino's humidity pan.

 

[JetCat]

Thanks for your input Hatch, that's very interesting about the no hatcher broiler houses i'll have to read into that.

 

[HatchCraft]

No hatcher needed. Maybe we needed redesign our brooders to hatch the eggs.
I hope you are making progress on the hatcher as I am curious to the the finished product.

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[JetCat]

No hatcher needed. Maybe we needed redesign our brooders to hatch the eggs.

I hope you are making progress on the hatcher as I am curious to the the finished product.

i'm not sure a hatcher / brooder would be to practical for me. it seams you'd need one for every set you hatch unless you're only hatching every 4 weeks or so.


progress is a bit slow because of the Thanksgiving holiday which also slowed up my fan and heating element that have been on order, i hope they arrive this week, it seams the folks i ordered from took the whole week off and they didn't ship them till yesterday afternoon.

i hoped to have it done before now as i've just locked down a set Monday morning and have another set scheduled for the 3rd and quail on the 4th and 11th

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A separate hatcher unit precludes needing to disinfect the incubator every time. You only need to disinfect the hatcher and you can set eggs about every 4 days in the incubator.
You can do smaller hatches with fresher eggs or you can do much larger staggered hatches depending on the size of each unit. You can continue to add eggs to the incubator without compromising humidity in the hatcher.

To accomplish this, they need to have 2 distinct air spaces.

 

[JetCat]

A separate hatcher unit precludes needing to disinfect the incubator every time. You only need to disinfect the hatcher and you can set eggs about every 4 days in the incubator.
You can do smaller hatches with fresher eggs or you can do much larger staggered hatches depending on the size of each unit. You can continue to add eggs to the incubator without compromising humidity in the hatcher.

To accomplish this, they need to have 2 distinct air spaces.

maybe i'm misreading your post but we are talking about two separate units between incubator and hatcher with no hatching in the incubator, the latter part of the conversation was hatching in the brooder (take 18 day incubated eggs and placing them directly into the brooder) and for me with staggered hatches that's not practical but for the commercial houses i can see where it is and from the video it appears they are using foggers on the hatching conveyor belt to keep humidity up, after the chicks hatched it appears they raise the conveyors and the cleaning/disinfecting takes place after the grow out is complete and they are sent to the processor.

 

[HatchCraft]

The things that interested me in theirs system was hatching vertically at ambient humidity levels. Misters would make sense, but the article I read said no supplemental moisture. They overcome the low humidity by moving large volumes of air at low velocity. The wench system let them fine tune temps by lowering or raising the eggs. May not work with standard breeds. Those cornish crosses are super chickens.

 

[JetCat]

I've tried the vertical hatching, i really didn't like it because the chicks seamed to struggle a lot more and they'd often fall back into empty shells as they stumbled around.

i thought i saw foggers used in that video (or maybe it was another one i watched) but i don't see it now...........but i've heard of people dry hatching without any problems.

 

[JetCat]

Finely got my heating element in, 16 days after ordering it!!!! made a little head way, still gotta build the door, i may either do a solid 1/2" plexiglass door or a 5pc door with 1/4" glass, going to make the hatching trays on full extension slides but that's another days project when i can find a few extra hours.

 

[JetCat]

Took me forever it seams as they're just aren't enough hours in the days here lately..................

i tried trays with solid bottoms and wire in the front/back and i had some pretty notable temp variations between the two drawers so it stalled progress for a bit trashed the drawers and made some new ones with a wire bottom and even with paper towels or the shelving liner across it i get even temps now. i need to shoot a few coats of lacquer undercoater and a top coat to seal everything but the weather just isn't cooperating on that. the viewing glass is 1/4" cast acrylic for heat conservation, air exchange is good, might even need to put an adjustment plate over the lower vent holes to regulate it some.

I've got 244 Black Star eggs due the 28th and i won't have time to spray and let the lacquer off gas and cure before lockdown so i'm gonna run unfinished on this hatch (the insides are primed so shouldn't be a problem soaking up too much moisture i hope), we'll see how it goes.