Making an automatic egg turner

[jga2z]

Ok, so I've been lurking and reading here for a while about building my own incubator. I've had chickens for a couple years and had a couple successful natural hatches but with a very low hatch rate (~20%) SO I'm going to try incubating some to increase my flock and maybe sell a few chicks.
I'm using a wine cooler fridge (with the glass door ) I got on CL for $20 with a bad compressor. I'm going to focus on the auto turner as I have the rest (heat,humidity,air circulation) figured out
I'm going to start with maybe 25-30 eggs (currently a weeks worth of laying), so plan-A involves using 3 regular egg cartons with the bottoms cut out and tilting each carton (in a rack with axis going the long way thru the carton) as opposed to tilting 1 giant rack of 30 eggs (or potentially multiple racks given the size of the inside of the cooler)
I'm going to make my own automatic egg turner with some repurposed parts, which brings me to my first question. I know incubating eggs are generally turned from side to side a few times a day, but my plan involves using a washing machine timer motor which is 1/2 RPM tilting 3 individual trays/cartons of eggs. With the correct design I think the motor has enough power to tilt them. This means that given my design of a continuously running motor it will tilt the eggs from side A to side B (60-90deg total) and back on a 2 minute cycle. I'm not sure whether this cycle of time is long enough or whether the eggs need to actually stop and rest between turns. I saw a similar design, but it had a 4 hour cycle. I was trying to keep it really simple and avoid using stop switches, timers, and reversing DC motors (all of which I have in the parts pile).
Hope this makes sense without pics, but any thoughts on tilt time cycle would be appreciated.
note to self:clarity of a posting at 2am may be lacking

 

[jga2z]

Well I was hoping someone had some input sooner rather than later. My eggs need to go in the incubator in the next couple days.
If the eggs really need to stop and rest in alternating tilted positions I guess I could easily add a timer.

 

[cluckerkeeper]

The egg turner that I use never stops moving. Always shifting the eggs. Slowly but constant. Hope this helps.

 

[RR Lover]

I'm using the little giant egg turner and to my knowledge it never rests but it takes 4 hrs for a complete side to side movement

 

[WalnutHill]

I've been giving some thought to how hens turn eggs compared to how egg turners turn eggs. I've been thinking about something on the lines of a turntable or lazy suzan, with a bit of the egg exposed below the turntable and held on their sides in cups or fingers above, and a very low speed or intermittent rotator to keep them on their sides but never in the same position for too long. Hens don't set them fat end up.

Using the wine cooler cabinet was an idea I had too, but my hatches are still too small to move up from Styrofoam.

 

[jga2z]

I've decided to just let the turner run constantly. I think it's slow enough even at 2 minutes per tilt cycle. I think as long as they don't set still or move too fast it will be fine.

Since my wife saw someone using the glass door cooler she had to have one, so I put a wanted ad on CL and in about 10 days got a call from a guy who had one with a bad compressor for $20.
I only get about 4-5 eggs per day right now so accumulating more than ~30 a week is all I can get to put in the incubator at once. I can scale it up with another tray or 2 if I can collect more in a week in the future.
.
walnuthill-I've seen a number of egg turners that have the eggs laid on their sides and set in between rails and have the "floor" move back and forth to turn them. As far a round turn table you'd have uneven turn rates with eggs closer to the center turning slower. You could a stationary base and "spokes" to rotate/turn the eggs. Might not be too space efficient but if you got the parts laying around give it a try and see.

I'll post some pics of my setup soon. Plan on getting it going with the eggs tomorrow night.
Thanks to everybody for their input

 

[cluckcluckluke]

I think mine rotates 90 degrees every hour.

 

[Daedalus62]

Hi jga2z,

I had the same doubts/questions on the egg turner issue... Also wanting to keep it simple, but somehow the "always turning" option doesn't seems natural to me...

As I like to tinker a bit in electronics, finally decided to build a cyclic timer circuit (http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/ronj/rt8.html) driving an 1RPM AC motor.

Not the simplest of solutions (for those without circuit building experience), but this allows for an 30sec ON (half a turn on the 1RPM motor) - 2hours OFF - 30sec ON - 2hours OFF, endless cicle... These time intervals are both adjustable.

I haven't build it yet... Have all the parts, no time to dedicate to...

I'll be curious to see some pics of your egg turner setup... Thanks.

Cheers