Looking for Ideas on a lockdown hatching only incubator

[xexxor]

I have a brinsea Ova Easy incubator that I use for hatching my eggs. I am looking for a way to expand my hatching operation. I am wanting to make or get another incubator set up just to use as a lockdown hatching bator/brooder. That way I can go ahead and start my next batch right away. Anyone have similar set ups or suggestions.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You’re serious about hatching aren’t you? I don’t know which version you have but those are the big ones. That changes what I was going to say a bit.

You say you want a hatcher/brooder. How long do you plan to brood the chicks in it? I’ll admit that brooder part confuses me a bit.

How many eggs are you putting in the hatcher at a time? The way I’d approach it is to collect eggs for a week and then start those in the incubator. Under reasonable storage conditions eggs can be stored about a week without losing hatchability. Under good storage conditions you can go several days longer. With a week between hatches, that gives you a reasonable amount of time to get the hatcher cleaned up and sanitized without being in a crunch if something upsets the schedule.

I’d get one with sufficient room and a fan. Obviously you don’t need the turners. With a lot of chicks, a problem you might have is that they generate a lot of heat on their own. Your problem might be to keep the eggs cool enough, not to heat them up. Also, they need fresh air. They can suffocate if they can’t get enough oxygen to breathe.

I don’t know how handy you are, but whether you decide to buy or build, the things I’d look at are the ease of clean-up, fresh air, and controlling temperature. Humidity is important too.

 

[xexxor]

Thanks for the response. Usually i only do about 100 eggs but have done 240 with my current egg trays. I am planning on finding or designing trays that will allow me to incubate more eggs and allow easy flipping (if ever necessary) and moving to the secondary unit. For brooding I only need them in there at most for 3 days.