ole dog trying new trick

[hellafarms]

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I would love to see a pic of the top of the lid to see how you mounted it.

 

[panner123]

As with all my bators, I can add water though the vent by way of a tube onto a sponge. Since I use the dry incubation method, very little water is needed until day 18. I have never had any problem kicking it up to 60% before. Now this will be my first attemp with the fan I will need to check how it acts.

Once the power came back and the temp reached, the temp has stayed between 99.5 and 100 degrees and the humidity is at 36%.

muddstopper, If you have never used a LG, you are in for a treat. It will drive you crazy at first, but they do work. They have 2 plugs in the top, (about 1/2") that can be removed. What most don't know about are the other holes for air monement. There are four on the bottom and 10 on the top, these are about 1/8". If you don't set the bator up. you will not get the proper air movement.

I started useing the LG in classrooms because of the cost. I now supply 15 classrooms with bators, the LG's fit my budget. 15 cabinet bators would be a little over the top.

Then you have some of the younger children that want to touch the bator only to knock it over. The LG takes a knocking and keeps on working, like a timex watch.

If they are used properly, they will give you a constant 90% hatch rate.

 

[muddstopper]

Rebel, since there are holes in the bottom as well as the top, I can see where adding a fan, to an incubator that didnt come with a fan, could cause heat and humidity problems. Mostlikely the fan is also produceing heat. In that situation, you are most likely correct that placeing the fan over, or to close to, the top vent holes will cause excessive air exchange. Moveing the fan or resticting the top vent hole would be the best option. Even still, plugging the top vent hole completely wouldnt be my ideal remedy as that would stop the air exchange altogether. My best guess as to why people have so much trouble adding computer fans probably has to do with excessive fan speed and air circulation. Since a computer fan is normally 12vdc, using a phone adapter that only puts out 5vdc would make a logical choice of power supply and should reduce the fan speed by half. Provided of coure the PC fan being used will operate off of a variable voltage range of power. Some will operate at voltages as low as 3 or 4 vdc and as high as 18vdc, and some wont. I just purchased two computer fans that run off 115vac to use in a cabinet incubator. One will produce 110cfm's and the other 198cfm's of wind. Either of these fans would blow the styrofoam incubators off the table. LOL If I was to purchase a computer fan for one of the LG type incubators, I would probably look for the smallest one I could fine and then run it off a lower voltage to reduce wind speed and reduce heat buildup caused by the fan. As I said, you are only trying to create air movement, not a wind or breeze. Even hot air blowing across an egg will produce a cooling effect, this due to the evaporation of moisture from inside the egg.

Good discussion, keep it going.

Bill

 

[muddstopper]

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I dont have plans anytime soon to start considering the LG type incubators. I know they work,there are to many people using them to suggest otherwise. My plans on hatching include more than 48 eggs per hatch, so the little incubators are not for me. Yea i could setup a bunch of them, but even at their cheap price, several would soon addup to a good quality cabinet incubator.

I suppose in a classroom enviroment with budget restraints, it would hard to justify a better quailty incubator, especially if you are already getting 90% hatchrates. I am wondering though, what do you do with all the baby chicks the kids are hatching out. 15x48x90% is still a lot of chicks per hatch.

 

[Junkmanme]

Well now, folks.........

Just how do these comments apply to the computer fan (located WHERE the factory fan WAS) ..AND employing the homemade coffee-can baffle..........

Does this "baffle" ameliorate the problems suggested?

just wondering about other's general speculative impressions....

-Junkmanme-

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I think it fixes the cold spot under the fan but not the extra ventilation caused by the fan being over a vent hole.

Whops, missed the part about the factory fan......

 

[muddstopper]

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I think if your replacemnt fan is flowing the same amount of air as the fan it replaced, then it should work like it did with the original fan. Now if your replacment fan is flowing greater than the original fan, only testing will tell you how well it performs. Throw some test eggs in there and let er rip.

 

[panner123]

Muddsopper, We only load 36 eggs per bator. As for the baby chicks, that is NO problem, until the students get home with them. Heehehehe
Once a child has the chicks home, the parents don't have the heart to say take it back, you can't have it. If you are a parent, you know how that goes.

 

[muddstopper]

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Ha ha. I gave up being a parent when the grandkids started coming along. Now I'm a PawPaw. Spoil them and send them home I always say.

 

[panner123]

Placed the bator in the classroom today. Wednesday or thursday the eggs will be placed in the bator. No one will touch it other than to add water if the humidity goes down, until the day 18, then the humidity will be raised. The teacher will check it every day as he feeds the animals they have at the school. The temp and humidity in the room the bator is placed is constant and away from the main buildings. We will know if this test works on the 10th or 11th of next month.
I have incubated eggs in a large bator with the aid of a fan before, but this is my first attempt using a fan in a LG.
Glad these are just mutt eggs and not my BMC's. I would be in there every day too.