The Incubator Thread

[Sally Sunshine]

very nice!

 

[stryker]

Agreed! Very nice work! How many eggs can your incubator hold?

 

[PD-Riverman]

Finished !
Well mostly - still tweaking things. I have a new heating element coming. I want to switch the cartridge heater with a PTC for safety.
Next project is an independent monitoring of temp and humidity across all my incubators and hatchers with logging and alerting via a Raspberry Pi and a bunch of sensors.
Currently have 200 eggs hatching and 515 more in the incubators for the next 2 weeks. I will be loading another 300 or so tonight.

Looking Good!! How many eggs will it hold?
Have you hatched any yet in it?
What is a PTC?
How is the temperature at the bottom rack compared to the top?

 

[gimmie birdies]

4/5 of theses hatched, then 3 more I had tossed in as a staggered hatch, hatched 2 days later so 7 total...

 

[stryker]

You are telling us that you threw the eggs in a crackpot and slow cooked them for 21 days and out pops chicks! Well all except 1. That is outstanding!!!!

 

[slordaz]

4/5 of theses hatched, then 3 more I had tossed in as a staggered hatch, hatched 2 days later so 7 total...

ohhhh so cute gimmie, thank you for chick fix for the day

 

[dheltzel]

Looking Good!! How many eggs will it hold?
Have you hatched any yet in it?
What is a PTC?
How is the temperature at the bottom rack compared to the top?

It has 6 racks. Each holds 96 regular size chicken eggs or 60 turkey eggs.
I rotate eggs through this one between my Sportsman and the Dickey (as a hatcher). So, technically, I have not hatched any in here, and don't intend to (might miss an egg and have it hatch in the setting tray and tumble out to the bottom, but that's not the plan). I am now hatching 200 eggs that have spent about a week and a half in here. I had some out this morning (heard the peeping), but the Dickey doesn't have a good way to peek inside enough to see what hatched.

A PTC is "Positive Temperature Coefficient". It's like what is in your heated car seats. It heats up and maintains a maximum temp then tapers off it's electrical use until the temp drops again. They are used in car seats for safety, to ensure they can't malfunction and set your car on fire. I have a 150w one in the bottom of the incubator on a separate (STC-1000) controller. That brings the temp difference down a lot, it's about 2 degrees cooler at the bottom. On my old Sportsman 1202 with upgraded digital thermostat, I also see a 2 degree gradient. I intend to correct this at some point, but it seems ok for now. The new ones I have on order are 500w. I currently have a 400w cartridge heater in the top. Those things heat up red hot.

I used an infrared heat "gun" to get readings on the eggs as well as the heating elements. I "clocked" a 500w cartridge heater at over 750 degrees. That made me nervous. The 150w PTC has never exceeded 270 degrees, which is not that much more than boiling water.

I wonder if I should have just went with a heat mat like the herp people use under their containers for bottom heat. Once version comes 11" wide and as long as you want. If I ran it up and down the sides and bottom, it would put heat right in the center of where most is "presumably" being lost.

Obviously, I like to tinker with stuff . . .
The inner engineer in me believes that "if it ain't broke", it doesn't have enough features yet.

 

[PD-Riverman]

It has 6 racks. Each holds 96 regular size chicken eggs

We talked about the turner motor when you first got started----I was wondering if/when all the racks were loaded---if the turner would turn them. I guess You have not gotten that Loaded yet to see????

 

[lizzy14]

Hello everyone, I am intrigued by something I noticed today at my husband's restaurant....an unused, broken metal heating cabinet. It was previously used to store bread rolls for dinner service and is no longer needed. It has a thermometer built into the door (though I'd use a backup to calibrate of course), and I believe it was certainly intended to hold a steady temp. Seems to me it would make a great cabinet incubator, with a few updates, including a replacement of the heating element of course. Has anyone ever revamped something similar for an incubator?

 

[dheltzel]

We talked about the turner motor when you first got started----I was wondering if/when all the racks were loaded---if the turner would turn them. I guess You have not gotten that Loaded yet to see????

I have had 4.5 of the 6 trays loaded and it turned fine. I bought a piece of steel strapping for the connecting rod and drilled additional holes in it. There is too much play in the holes and so the trays jerk as they tip over to the other side. Don't cheap out on the connector is one lesson learned.