HERE WE GO AGAIN Anyone SETTING Aug 30th - Sept 8th join me!!

[Brookhavens]

Better later than never....
We set eight bantam Cochins for my sons 4-H project last night. He decided to do chickens since his rabbit bit him on the way in the ring for showmanship last year. It even drew blood. We have been enjoying our layers so much, he wanted to do chickens too!
I dug up a little giant that had been in the closet at the 4-H office for embryology projects for at least ten years. Set it up for over a week in my office with perfect temps. But now that it has eggs in it, of course it is fluctuating like mad! Grrrr. Never less than 99 or more than 102, but it is stressing me out!
Hope we are not terribly disappointed. If this thing won't stop fussing around, I'm gonna go down and get a replacement. Cause it is worth the risk changing them over rather than losing them to this oldie.

So glad you joined us. Did you get the eggs from Steve & Tracy?

 

[Hotpoker]

Hotpoker, can you talk more about how you made that egg candler? I'm intrigued...

See above.

Pretty easy really - I made a wooden box, lined it with some stainless steel from an oven range hood i had lying around and wired up a standard compact flourscent bulb to a standard 1 gang architrave switch. Al presto - done!

I went a bit OTT on the box though - so much so that my wife complained that it took me the best part of a day to make it!

 

[Brookhavens]

Yeap it is a thermostat - it is an ebay one from China:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/110V-Dig...Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item3f16cde468
so
I actually started off with an iron (as in a clothes iron) thermostat - but the temperature drifted between 97 and 105 F. Not enough good unfortunatley! I think rice cooker thermstats would be more accurate - but i didn't have one of those lying around.

The brand is called Willhi. It works great - however the temperature control is only accurate to 1 degree Celcius - (33.8 F ??). This is good enough. You set the hysteresis at 1 degree celcius and temp set 38C (100.4 F). When the temperature drops to 37C (98.6) the lamp turns back on. This means that on average the temperature is around 99.5F. I am getting a temperature logger for my lap top next week - so should have some proof coming shortly!

More info here:
http://www.willhi.com/Documents/WH7016Edatasheet.pdf

As for the egg candler: it is just a compact flourescent in a box, lined with stainless steel. Use a flourescent to avoid the heat build up.

Here are some more pics:

Thanks so much for the instructions! Did you wire the alarm function into it? What gauge wire did you use did you use? Sorry for all the questions but you got my wheels turning and I really want to build another bator now. The candler seems simple enough. Now I just have to find a wooden box to use.

 

[Brookhavens]

See above.

Pretty easy really - I made a wooden box, lined it with some stainless steel from an oven range hood i had lying around and wired up a standard compact flourscent bulb to a standard 1 gang architrave switch. Al presto - done!

I went a bit OTT on the box though - so much so that my wife complained that it took me the best part of a day to make it!

She may have complained but the finished product was well worth it!

 

[Hotpoker]

Thanks so much for the instructions! Did you wire the alarm function into it? What gauge wire did you use did you use? Sorry for all the questions but you got my wheels turning and I really want to build another bator now. The candler seems simple enough. Now I just have to find a wooden box to use.

The model I got does not have the alarm function / port.

Just google image the product name and there are a number of photos showing the wiring.

I am not sure of the gauge sorry. But dont worry about this too much as the amperage that you will draw will be low - assuming you have a 60-100w bulb. Just use standard 110v lighting flex / lamp cable and that will be large enough to take the amps. You should be able to get this easy enough at your local hardware store.

I hope this helps?

 

[tshirtdr1]

Wow! Thanks for the welcome and I look forward to hatching with all of you.

 

[picanins]

Hotpoker and Brookhavens - you guys have reeeeeaaaallly got me thinking about making my own Bator. 4 hours sleep last night with haywire temps is just not working for me . LUVVVVVING this thread by the way!!!!

 

[Roxannemc]

This hatch is going slowly for me.Last few flew by... Im not too optimistic tis time. Maybe i should be more so but had a couple glitches and found one really bad egg 2 days ago day 7 and 3 are weepers. Moved them to the other bator so they dont pass it to other eggs if thats possible, Dont know what weeping is from... bacteria???? or just large pours...
Got 18 from the breeder for auction of 12...maybe really good but maybe a low hatch rate on his eggs so they added more...hate to be negative though as it was kind to give me so many either way.
Today day 9.

sigh

 

[Roxannemc]

Wow! Thanks for the welcome and I look forward to hatching with all of you.

Hello from Missouri and glad to have you ...More are ALWAYS Welcome...Makes it so much more fun

.

 

[picanins]

This hatch is going slowly for me.Last few flew by... Im  not too optimistic tis time. Maybe i should be  more so but had a couple glitches  and found one really bad egg  2 days ago day 7 and 3 are weepers. Moved them to the other bator so  they dont pass it to other eggs if thats possible, Dont know what weeping is from... bacteria???? or just  large pours...
Got 18 from the breeder for auction of  12...maybe really good but maybe a low hatch rate on his eggs so  they added more...hate to be negative though as it was kind to give me so many either way.
Today  day 9. sigh

Hey Rox. I was wondering how things were going for you! So sorry about the weeping eggs. Is this your first 'shipped eggs' experience or have you hatched shipped eggs before?