DIY Thread - Let's see your "Inventions".

[perchie.girl]

not really an invention but here is the huge brooder my dad built me for chicks i have coming in about a week...(excuse the mess in the middle of cleaning it up...chickens got in and kicked stuff everywhere)

nice

 

[mix3dbreed]

2 days to run tru thses 356 pages of great DIY ideas.

Thanks to everyone.

 

[FaerieGlynne]

2 days to  run tru thses 356 pages of great DIY ideas.

Thanks to everyone.

Good job! I just recently did the same run. A feat in and of itself for the love of our feathered friends!

 

[mix3dbreed]

Good job! I just recently did the same run. A feat in and of itself for the love of our feathered friends!

Yeah. You never know which inventions or contraptions will be usefull for yourself, so i was curious. Too bad alot of pic are gone.

 

[tiffanyblitz]

This thread is so neat! Looking forward to checking out all the clever ideas.

 

[GregT]

I bet the chicks will eat the ants .. I'm no expert .. new at this myself ..

 

[bruceha2000]

I bet the chicks will eat the ants .. I'm no expert .. new at this myself ..

What ants? It is helpful to hit the "Quote" button instead of the "Reply" button.

And yes, my girls will eat ants and they love earwigs.

 

[tao chick]

Hardly my invention just a take on other slide to roll egg turners... Sorry no pictures of the build or of it outside the incubator, maybe next time as I want to address a few small issues and thus make a revision...

I'm working on a large fully automated incubator so this was just a stop gap fix for now using my old home built incubator...

I tossed this together with stuff I had laying around, the only thing I purchased was the egg turner motor and dowels... All the wood was ripped from either a scrap 2x6 or from a small scrap of plywood... Nothing fancy I wanted to get it build ASAP...

The aluminum motor control arms were cast and finished by me (mostly with hand files and a belt sander) after melting down and sand casting the rough shape from some aluminum soda cans... I made the arm on the motor large enough that it can easily be converted to a longer throw to rotate larger eggs like peafowl...

It gives me about a 180° roll one way and then a reverse 180° roll every 4 hours, or in other words it flips the eggs about every 2 hours...

It works but I want to address a few issues I have noticed, I was too 'stingy' on the spacing between the dowels, made 3 different spacing but looking back I should have just made them big enough for the larger eggs, it's a hassle sizing the egg to the slot...

As it sits now the tray has pins that ride up and down a groove in the side walls, but it also has foot slides on the bottom to ride across the plywood... Next revision will have the slides on the bottom removed and a section of softer drawer liner will be glued to the sheet of plywood to give a little cushion and also provide more resistance as the eggs have a tendency to slip on occasion vs roll...

Also the next revision the tray will just have side rails and dowels, really no need for the front and back rails, the tray is plenty sufficient with just the dowels across it....





In the last photo, yes the metric temp gauge is reading a little high, that is just the air temp on the high swing of the heat cycle, you can't see it but the blue gauge shows a near dead on 99.5° - 100° all the time and that is measured from the small baby bottle of water seen in the lower left to better simulate the inside of the egg temp... The other thermometer (glass on on the left) at egg level and slower to change due to the steal temp buffering balls also reads a steady 100° give or take...

Casting your own aluminum... wow! I'm impressed!

 

[MeepBeep]

Casting your own aluminum... wow!  I'm impressed!

Honestly aluminum casting at home is pretty easy and can be done on the cheap, it's higher temp metals like brass, bronze and cast iron that are a little or lot more tricky...

I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it's not as hard as may would expect... I used the 'lost foam' method in regular play sand to cast these pieces, the foundry was an empty 3 gallon-ish Freon tank lined with Structo-Lite and fueled by common charcoal and a small inflator pump and/or hair dryer... Crucible was a stainless steel bowl... Total out of pocket cost was under $20 to build the foundry as the air pump, hair dryer and stainless cup were Goodwill purchases for a few bucks total, the Freon tank was a dumpster find and Structo-Lite is cheap... Nothing fancy to look at but it melts aluminum just fine...

 

[GregT]

Not at all. It doesn't cut off their circulation or cause any discomfort other than being somewhat immobilized in their walking. They can still move their legs, though it has to be done together instead of separately and they get to nestle into deep bedding all night, just as if they were sleeping in a nest box. No different than when a baby has to wear a bar between his shoes to straighten his feet when he's in bed at night or a chick has to wear tapes to correct spraddle leg. The chicken has full mobility of the legs except they cannot walk or run...they can sure hop and stand up, though.

Here's a bird standing in a wheel barrow...with his legs taped together. He might be annoyed but he sure isn't suffering. But, opinions vary and what some call cruelty, I do not and what others call love, I call cruelty...so never the twain shall meet.

Just wondering the purpose of taping legs .. I am new to this Chicken thing .. My brother in-law will be processing some males from our flock in several months ..