Oh I see now!!! Thanks so much. Yeah the rolling is better also because it allows the egg to be on its side, and thus healthy development of the egg. That's a really creative design -- most rolling designs I have seen have the egg just roll between the rods, but that means they only roll ~90 degrees.
I just finished reading a very detailed article on incubating eggs. The author reveals that the huge hatcheries also incubate eggs in the horizontal position. Seems like you and the momma chickens had it right all along!! My motor is gonna be sliding 5 trays back and forth. I hope?? Ya think?
#1 a complete list of materials in your description would have been nice. #2 when you do a build....typically people want to see it work at the end after watching a whole video #3 instructing how to set timers and other equipment is a must. Your video was entitled "detailed instructions" unfortunately too many people just assume that the people they are teaching know even just the basics of what they are building. Too bad that's not the case. If people are looking for a tutorial it's usually a pretty sure bet that they don't have a clue what they are doing. Otherwise.....good video
out standing . we use the motors for automatic agitators for making paint. they run all the time with out a load . They just rotate and activate a small limit switch. I will hand it to you for being very creative. well done sir. thanks again .
Happy to report that I built an incubator with your idea and get 100% success rate. Your way of rolling the eggs is more natural as the same way as chicken does naturally. Since I only built with materials that I had on hand, I didn't use a thermostat but use a light dimmer instead and I didn't have a slow motor so I added a rod extending outside and move the rack by hand a few times a day. My next step is to build a PID temperature control, and the circuit for a stepping motor to move the rack back and fore since I have 2 stepping motors laying around and can put that to good use. Thanks for your inspiration for this project.
That's perfect then. Some of the disco ball motors I'd looked at before were a good 4x the size of the motor in my videos, so I wasn't sure which one you found. I'd love to see some pictures of the finished product if you felt like it:). Good luck!
Glad to here the temps are nice and stable for ya! That is a tricky situation with the timer/motor combo. You could simply let it run for 10-15 minutes each hour. Even though they would likely come to a similar resting place, it should keep the yokes from attaching to the inside of the eggs. Also, it's likely your 1 rpm motor will not keep perfect time with your timer, so it will likely rest in a completely different place after a few hours.
thanks i figured out the 2nd questine myself im probely sure it wont be the last questine i have for u becouse im interested in all your other vids thanks for all your help :).
No problem:). You could probably just cut out a larger one from wood or mdf like mine and glue/screw to the existing one. I think there is a little round nub on the existing one if I remember correctly. You could simply drill a hole where that would hit the one you cut out to allow the new arm to sit flat against the existing arm.
I would go for a heat lamp (75 to 100w). That's pretty minimal wattage and it's only on half of the time if that, so you shouldn't notice a significant expense. Not sure I understand the second question. Congrats on getting all of the stuff together and good luck!
Being that they're commercial grade and you have a few to experiment with, you could use a rheostat (like a dimmer switch) and "dim" the input voltage to slow it down. The risk is you'd create a lot of heat and wear the motor out faster. If you don't run it continuously it shouldn't be a problem. The better/expensive way is to use an AC PWM or Pulse Width Modulator. It pulses the voltage at full current, doesn't create the extra heat, and slows her down without the excess load on the motor.
@mcmujose Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I would assume your motor should work fine. I'm a little confused about it being 12v, but still ac. Are you sure it's not a dc motor? I've only ever seen the 120v-ish ac motors and 12v dc. You have to find an adapter that would put out 12v AC, which I'm not sure where you'd find. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to see how it all turns out!:)
GREAT VIDEO: A timer for the motor is going to be at least $10 - and those only have a couple of on/off set points per 24 hrs - what you REALLY need is an intermittent timer (sprinkler timer) that comes on for a 5 min every hour, or 30 seconds every 3 hours - these are much more expensive. It would be cheaper to get a High Torque clock motor, those are only about $15-20 and will take a modest continual load. You could also direct a small circulating fan to blow on/towards the motor. Lastly, research shows continuous (at least 96 turns per day) is best, which is usually easier to set up with these motors - no timers needed.
No worries at all:). There are two methods used widely for egg turning; holding them upright in a tray and tilting them, or laying them on their side and rolling them. Typically it's easier commercially to have them in trays that tilt so the whole tray can be removed later. It's more natural to roll them like a mother hen would, so I decided to try this method. Plus, my tray can be removed leaving the eggs in the incubator so you don't have to put them back in:).
My small motor had too low of torque for sliding 5 trays of eggs. I reduced the drag/friction using strips cut from those almost paper-thin cutting board things. I super-glued a strip onto the entire edge of the fixed tray frame at the edge where the sliding tray would make contact. Then, of course, I glued another strip on the underneath side of the sliding portion where it would slide along and, on top of the bottom strip. So, I have plastic-to-plastic mating surfaces Slick as owl poop!
Thanks! I discovered you can buy the Hova Bator turner motor online for about $16. It's not cheap, but can suffice in a pinch. Try typing in "synchronous motor 1 rpm" into ebay uk. I was able to find a few that way:) I found a couple under that search that were 1/3 rpm, which is nice. The 1 rpm motors would be fine too. You would just need to find a way to run it in half minute increments, otherwise you might not be able to stop the turner at the other side of the incubator.
You could do a couple of things here. If you leave the blue arm on it, you could take a small 2 1/4" or so long piece of wood/MDF, drill a hole in it that fits the blue arm's nub and then put a screw right behind the nub through the wood piece you made and into the plastic. That way you'd have two points holding it on to the blue arm. You'd need a hole on the other end of the wood piece for the turning screw as well.
Hi mate love the idea and was considering making this to fit into a new incubator I am building, however I am unable to find a telescope clock motor in the UK which is where I am from live searched Ebay here but to no avail. any ideas what else could work for it. Tony
@HomeDistiller The verdict is in on the hatch rate:). I had 3 infertiles (yolk/egg white and no enlarged blastodisc). Those are a fertility and/or storage problem, not an incubator problem, so not counted in hatch rate. I also had 3 with partially developed chicks, each at different stages of life. I ended up with 18 hatched, not too wet nor sticky and no bloody navels or extra yolk. So that's an 85% hatch rate! After reading that hatcheries can't expect much more than 80%, I'm pretty stoked!
@HomeDistiller It'll be fun too see how it does. The temp has been stable; between 99.5-100.7 since the eggs have been in. The light comes on at 99.5 and cut's off around 100, then heats up that last .4-.7 degree. This swing happens every 5 minutes or less, so the egg temp probably isn't varying more than a couple of tenths of a degree. I can't imagine that affecting things much. Hopefully the humidity will work out; it has stayed around 45-55%. I wish I had a Hova-Bator to do a side-by-side.
Not a worry at all. I didn't see any dumb questions;). I actually have a couple extra motors already, but thanks anyway! I bought a timer by GE that can do up to 20 cycles a day, so I set it up to run every hour and then for the last few cycles every hour and a half. The more the merrier on the turning, however, more than 3-4 times a day is just a bonus and not at all necessary. I'd say just to set it up how would make sense for your materials and aim for at least 3-4 times a day. Good luck!
I have had roughly an 85% hatch rate. 55% humidity is pretty high as it is. I would leave the water out until the last 3 days, then spike the humidity to the 70%-80% range.
The stats sound good. Did they give you dimensions? That's be the only other consideration. You'd want enough room in order to get the turner out. You could always make a removable motor mount if the motor was on the large side. That way you could just take the motor assembly out to make enough space.
Another option would be to take off the blue arm and simply cut a hole in the piece of wood/MDF to fit the circle with a flat shape that the arbor has. Yet another option would be using a 1/2" or so thick piece of wood, drilling a the diameter of the arbor without the flat, and screwing a screw into from the side to hit the flat on the arbor. Visuals would help here, but hopefully that'll help some:). Good luck!
Mine was only about $3 after shipping;). However, they can be hard to find. You can always find the hovabator replacement motors (which are a great option) on amazon. They're $16, but you won't need to by a timer as they turn so slowly you can leave them on all the time.
No prob! Nothing with wood rot so far. It definitely helps to put those hardwood bumps on the bottom of the trays in case water spills. This way it won't be absorbed by the wood. It only takes maybe 15 mins to make one of those grates too, so if one goes bad it's cake to get another one ready to go.
@paco9045 It should say somewhere on the motor. I copied what you wrote and did a google search. It seems like most of the 42tyz motors that came up in the search were between 3-6 rpm. You could also connect a chord to it and plug it in. Then simply time how long it takes to go around once.
I like the rolling idea better because it is more natural, but there is probably very little difference to be honest. The swinging idea can take up a lot of space and makes removing the turner much more difficult because you have to take each egg out individually, take the turner out, then put all of the eggs back in. Whereas, with the rolling turner, you just lift out the turner and the eggs stay put.
Yes, that motor should do fine. Try to run it for just one minute every hour. If your timer won't go that low, pick an odd number of minutes (1,3,5,7, etc.). This way it will stop the turner on the opposite end that it started.
thank you 4 ur reply.....right now i am having problem with humidity,without keeping water i am getting 55% humidity...should i keep water????and how succesful is your incubator??
@paco9045 I'm assuming that means 9 tenths of a turn and not 9 or 10 turns a minute. That might be a bit hard to work with as it would be hard to find a timer capable of running it for the exact amount of time needed to turn it half way around. Most timers will only run as little as 1 minute intervals, so you could run it for 6 or 7 minutes. That would make it turn around about 6 or 7 times and but end up on the other side. You have to constantly monitor it to make sure it stops when wanted.
great effort but leaves me with a ton of questions could we SEE it actually working? put an egg in it and show the motor works? how did you set the timer?
It should work fine. You could just set the timer to run it for an odd number of minutes every hour. That way the eggs will always end up on the opposite side they started on when the turner comes on. They also sell the hovabator/little giant replacement motors on amazon for about $16. These turn once every 4 hours, so you could just let that one go continuously without worrying about the timer. 80 duck eggs? That's excellent! If you put up a video, feel free to make it a video response:).
Mine is on a timer so that it only rotates once an hour. The motor is only turned on for 5 mins to rotate the eggs each time. If you have a slow enough motor that turns once every 2 hours or so, you can leave it running all the time. That's what the commercial incubators do.
I would probably add more vent holes and maybe mess with a slide-out tray system for humidity, but other than that, I'd leave it alone. I'm not sure why someone would say that the eggs should be end-up, as this is completely unnatural. You don't see chickens turning them end-up anyway:). I have heard some really strange practices that people swear by for increasing your hatch rate, but most of it has no basis in science and isn't done in commercial hatcheries, so I tend to keep it simple.
I usually buy them locally or on ebay. There are websites that sell them as well, but there prices tend to be a bit higher. They might have higher hatch rates when purchased from a legitimate company, but I've never tried 'em before so I can't say one way or the other.
hye! can do i connect the motor with the arduino uno? how to programs it, because we need to turn the atleast 3 time a day..we just simply use the motor to turns it.
Tim, I'm trying to figure out a problem. I have a 1 rpm motor, and a 1 min. increment timer. Any suggestions on how to get a half turn (or anything other than a complete egg turn) with each power-up? I would think it best to rotate the egg and leave it in a different position than it started at the beginning of the rotation. I'm a newbie to incubating, but have used some of your tips and have a pretty precise temp control going now! Thanks! ~Scott
hi i finnaly got going on my incubator tonight i have most of the parts but a heat sorce.ive two questions for you=1..what would you recomend as a heat sorce that wont eat my electricity bill.....2=i got a 1 rpm turner and was just wondering when the turner is on is it not on 360 degrees so will the turner not jump up please help thanks
So it just moves constantly but very slowly like 12 hours to do a full 4 inch circle so two turns every six hours. That is OK for the chicks to be constantly moved? In nature they get moved when the hen moves them which seems a more realistic emulation of nature to move them every six hours or so no? What hatch rate did you achieve with this method?
@paco9045 Mine actually spins spins all the way around as well, so you can do the same thing I did. The way I get it to stop is by using a programmable timer for lights, like the ones you can buy at home depot. Mine is a 1/10th rpm motor, so if I run it for 5 minutes it turns halfway around. I just have it run for 5 minutes every hour.
Hey mate, I was wondering where on eBay you found this motor..? I'm in Australia so everything on eBay either comes up as a telescope motor not clock and their about 40$+ If you could help me out that'd be great!
Those commercial turners that rock the egg as opposed to actually turning it are deigned around that principle. I agree with you, best to mock the chickens natural methods. They seem to know what's up! :-) Any issues with mildew or wood rot with the wood in all that humidity? Thanks for answering all my questions.
Yeah, the telescope clock motor's are hit and miss. You can actually buy a hovabator turner replacement motor for about $17. I can't post a link per youtube, but type "hovabator turner replacement motor amazon" into google and the first link should be the amazon ad I found. The other option is to type "clock motor" into ebay and find one that looks similar to mine. If it runs on 120v and is pretty slow (1 rpm or less) it should work great. Good luck!
