Hatching "Innovations & Inventions"... ??

[Suellyn]

Can we start a thread with some BYC hatching inventions & innovations?? I have seen so many cool ideas & creations; egg turners, candlers, devices to add or remove water from 'bator without having to open it, etc., etc.!!!

It might be nice to "compile" them, kinda like how the home-made incubators, or brooders, or coops, are already together in "collections" for people to browse through...

Here's one to start: It's a cheap way to modify a flashlight into a candler...

I used a small LED flashlight and "foam pipe insulation". You only need a couple inches of it, and it is CHEAP.. A 6 foot section is only $3 at Home Depot. The insulation comes in different internal diameters, I believe this one is 3/4".

Just put the flashlight into the piece of insulation, works really well for me; the insulation directs the light beam very nicely, PLUS keeps the egg from conking into the hard edges of the flash light!

Here's some pix, including my DD "modeling" proper candling technique

!!

 

[giasmom]

Good idea but that just seems to me like it would make things to easy !

BTW cute kid !

 

[astylishgirl]

GREAT idea! for both the candler and the thread.

 

[Suellyn]

Okay, here's another one...

I was debating between the "carton method" of hatching eggs, vs. let them hatch laying on their sides... what I came up with was a "happy medium" that allowed the eggs to lay on their sides (like Momma hen does), but ALSO kept them from being knocked around or rolled all over the place by the first few hatchlings (which seems to be everyone's concern, including mine!). Again I figured "Momma Hen" is kinda sitting on them through-out, so although they DO probably have some "wiggle room", they are *NOT* rolling willy-nilly all over the place...

Hence the "styro-hatcher"... eggs on sides, with SOME wiggle room, but bumpers to keep from HARD KNOCKS into each other...

I just cut holes slightly larger than the size of eggs into some 1/2" (?) thick sheets of styrofoam, and set the eggs down into it to hatch. Worked out well.

NOTES: This would probably not work/fit into a crowded incubator. Also, make sure when chicks are on the styrofoam that they are not going to bump heads on the heating element above them. Lastly, I did have a couple people express concern that they could pick at/eat the syrofoam.. so far not an issue here (plus my whole 'BATOR is styrofoam

!), but it's something to watch out for. ?

 

[astylishgirl]

very cool... I am coming up on my first hatch... is their bumping their heads on the heat element a problem?? I have been worried about that.

 

[Suellyn]

Quote:
There should be enough space, but when you add something like an egg carton or a sheet of styrofoam it raises the "floor" height, so not as much space between floor & heating element. Distance varies from incubator to incubator, so it kinda depends on what kind you have. Could always "lower the floor (screen/mesh)" if nesc.!

 

[chicken+quail=luv]

I have a dozen quail eggs, and in the incubator, we have an old utensil holder that we keep the eggs in. We just tilt the incubator back and forth to roll it, and it works fine!

 

[Lyz]

I AM WRITING ABOUT MY EGG TURNERS...I WENT TO TSC TO BUY EGG TURNERS BUT THEY WERE LIKE $50 EACH...WHICH I COULD NOT AFFORD...SO I GOT TO LOOKING AT THE DESIGN AND FIGURED OUT WHAT WOULD WORK AND I MADE MY OWN...I MADE TWO OF THEM FOR ABOUT $5 FOR BOTH...

I TOOK 2 PIECES OF 1X2 AND CUT JUST LONG ENOUGH TO FIT IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BATOR...THEN GOT DOWEL RODS AND CUT THEM LONG ENOUGH TO FIT ACROSS THE BATOR...JUST LONG ENOUGH TO REACH THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOARDS...THEN I TOOK LEFT OVER EASTER EGGS AND SPLIT THEM IN HALF AND SCREWED THEM TO THE DOWEL RODS...I THEN TOOK PLUMBING HANGERS AND ATTACHED THE DOWELS TO THE 1X2..JUST TIGHT ENOUGH TO KEEP THEM FROM TIPPING....AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REACH IN AND TURN THE EGGS ROW BY ROW AND THE BATOR IS ONLY OPEN FOR SECONDS...IT IS PROVEN TO REALLY WORK...WE JUST HATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH THESE...WE HAD TWO BATORS GOING...AND ONLY HAD 3 THAT DID NOT HATCH AFTER CANDLING AND REMOVING THE INFERTILES ON DAY 14...GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE...