Newbie with a fan question!!

[GreatCanadian]

Hi all,

Just finished my first ever hatch with a Hova Bator 1602N. Hatched 5 strong chicks out of 6 eggs. Actually my 10 year old daughter was the captain of this ship, and did a great job.

I am going to add a fan for the next hatch. I work in a computer lab so it wasn't hard for me to find a fan!!

I have researched this site, and whatever Mr. Google can come up with as well, and cannot determine definitively if fan should blow down on the eggs or draw the air up. There are a lot of differing opinions on this.

I currently have the fan running 12 volt, which I will use if I decide to draw the air up. I will hook it to 9 volt if I decide to blow down on the eggs, as it's a pretty strong air current from the 12 volt.

So, my question is, blow down or draw up. I will be mounting the fan dead center at the top of the incubator. Thanks in advance for any advice you may offer!!

Here's a little video for your pleasure.

GC

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have any specific experience to draw on for my response related to whether up or down is best but I find if there is no clear definitive answer to a question like this, it generally means that both work fine. There may be little tricks that work with one or the other, those details can be tricky. I think you'll find on this forum that you will get many different opinions on about any subject. That's generally because there are a lot of different ways that work. But in certain situations, certain ways might work better than others. Welcome to the forum, by the way.

My suggestion is to try to determine what you are actually trying to accomplish by adding a fan. I think you are trying to stir the air so the temperature and humidity is the same everywhere in the incubator instead of warm air rising and causing segregation by elevation. I can't for the life of me see where it makes any difference to the egg if the air is flowing up or down when it blows over the egg as long as the temperature and moisture is the same.

With either one you might want baffles or diverters to ensure that mix, but your goal is to avoid dead spots in the incubator. I don't see a difference in up or down as ling as you achieve your goal of mixing the air.

 

[GreatCanadian]

I have read that blowing down can dry out the eggs. I have read that drawing up brings cooler air into the bottom of the incubator through the ventilation holes, and cools the bottom of the eggs too much.

On the Hova Bator models that come with the fan pre-installed, which direction does the air blow?

GC