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?
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.
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.
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!
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.
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??
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.
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
@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.
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.
Now that you have had a few hatches, is there anything about the design you would change? My understanding is that you are supposed to stand the eggs on their point during the first stage of the hatch. Do you think your success rate would be any better if they were on end?
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!
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.
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!
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 :).
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.
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!
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:).
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.
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
#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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
@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.
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!
@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.
This is bigoledude again. We found some 1RPM motors. Can you please give the the name of the timer you mentioned that must run for a minimum of 1 minute for each cycle? How many cycles per day can I run this timer? Would you want a 50 RPM motor? For Free? I sure appreciate you putting up with all of these dumb questions!
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
I'll bet it would! I looked up a few and they seem to be of the same type. One of them that I found was just 1 rpm, which is ideal (1 rpm or less is best and mine was 1/12 rpm).
@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.
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.
I have access to some free motors used in very large commercial washing machines. They are used to inject the detergents, bleach, fabric softeners etc. They run at 50 RPMs. However, during those times while the other motors are injecting their particular chemical, the others slow down to a snails-pace. If the digital circuit board can slow em down, HOW CAN I SLOW IT DOWN? Resistors, diodes what? I am clueless as to what a diode or resistor is! LOL!!! These lil motors are bulletproof.
The spacing doesn't really matter. That's just so the eggs will fit between the bars. Get that as tight as possible. I made the armature on the motor 2", so when it turned around, it would move the turner grate a total of 4". Most chicken eggs are between 6"-8" in circumference, so I wanted them only to turn halfway (or a little more) over when they reached the other side. 3"4" would be halfway, so I went with 4" just in case the eggs slid a little before starting to turn. .
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.
Hi i have the incubator made temperature between 99.6-100.2 with ur style of turner mine is able to hold 80 duck eggs just what rpm motor will i need to move these i can put bearings under the 2x1 sides i have found a 1 rpm motor on ebay would that do??
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.
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:).
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?
@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!:)
would this be ok its on ebay but i cant post the link Soundlab Black 1 RPM Mains Powered Mirror Ball Motor Featuring Metal Case This professional mirror ball motor features a tough black powder coated metal case, shaft with pre-drilled hole for mirror ball connection and a quiet motor. For mirror balls up to 2.1 kg. The fitted power cable (1.5 foot approx) allows you to add your own plug*. Features Colour: Black Power Input: 230 V/AC @ 50 Hz Packing: Box Rotation: 1 RPM Max Load: 2.1kg
@Mooseified There we go....couldn't think of it on camera;). The hatch rate is to-be-seen still. I have a batch in there now that's got 2 weeks left. I picked up the eggs locally from a guy who just happens to raise chickens, so hopefully they're all viable. I'll let you know how this first round goes. It seems like this method of egg turning is more natural than having them stand on end like the commercial versions, so hopefully it'll perform equally as well or better. We'll see;).
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.
@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!
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 The key will be to reduce friction. I put polished hardwood plugs with round ends on each corner of the turner rail so that the contact points were very small and smooth. You could use anything here, even wheels or ball bearings if you wanted to step it up a notch. Mine had very low friction and would turn the tray with 24 eggs in it, so it shouldn't have a problem if you smooth out all surfaces and make the contact points small. Let me know how it goes or if you have any more ?s:)
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!
I can't say thank you enough for the detailed instructions given in the video! Priceless!
Very welcome and so glad this video is still helpful all these years later:) Best of luck on your turner build!
Thank you for sharing the egg turner build.
@DoubleQz Very welcome!:)
Thanks. Plain, simple, cheap and easy to build. Great video and sound.
A most excellent and well explained tutorial!!! Very well done!!
Thanks a bunch!
@@tlgrimmy You're most welcome!!! My comment was definitely well deserved, you did great!!! I subbed!!!
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?
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 .
Sounds like those automatic agitators are a great idea and nice and simple too. Thanks for watching!
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.
Two small pan head screws on each rail will also lessen friction during travel . Screw them up into the rail on the bottom side of course.
Yes, I think I ended up using rounded oak screw hole plugs for this purpose, but the screws would do the trick too.
Thank you so much for this. Very nicely explained and easy to follow instructions & explanations.
Marie White Very welcome and good luck on the build:).
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.
Thanks! Yeah, I like the rolling idea and eggs being on their sides better. More natural, seems to be working well, and makes it convenient:).
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!
Thanks for taking the time to make the video.
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.
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??
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.
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
@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.
Cool! I'm going to use old umbrella or bicycle spokes. Stay tuned!
Maybe the motor and long slot could be outside the incubator. Use a connecting rod to link the motion to inside with a spoke?
Great idea and best of luck on the build!
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.
Now that you have had a few hatches, is there anything about the design you would change? My understanding is that you are supposed to stand the eggs on their point during the first stage of the hatch. Do you think your success rate would be any better if they were on end?
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!
Thanks! Superb demo.
This is awesome, thank you very much for the upload!!
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.
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!
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 :).
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.
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!
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:).
Hi
I love your incubator and turner.....
I just wanted to know how you made the viewing glass on the lid,
and cover the edges of the plastic
thanks
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.
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
#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
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.
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.
what do you think,swinging or rolling the eggs are better?hoping 4 ur reply
Thanks to giving me a good idea for business
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.
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.
Ok, thanks so much! sorry, in the video it just looks like the eggs are moving laterally. How are they turning?
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 can't imagine this system in action.
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.
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!
@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.
That motor... Does he rotating all time? I mean like clock? And does that good for chickens (rotating all time)?
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!
the slow rpm motor could be gotten for free out of a microwave as a plate turning motor.. it might be a little fast though but worth a look
HomeDistiller do you still have to turn eggs by hand if you have an egg turner. What do you set the humidifier
Excellent! Very good tutorial!
Thanks for watching and good luck on your turner!
THANKS A LOT MAN,REALLY HELPED..GOOD LUCK
I am having a 2.5 rpm motor with a timer....will it be suitable for this egg turner???pls reply
@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.
nice bro m going to try it now......
tell me how did you give ventilation..?my cooler size is 14'*16',how many holes should i provide?
This is bigoledude again. We found some 1RPM motors. Can you please give the the name of the timer you mentioned that must run for a minimum of 1 minute for each cycle? How many cycles per day can I run this timer? Would you want a 50 RPM motor? For Free? I sure appreciate you putting up with all of these dumb questions!
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
Do you think a ice maker motor would work?
I'll bet it would! I looked up a few and they seem to be of the same type. One of them that I found was just 1 rpm, which is ideal (1 rpm or less is best and mine was 1/12 rpm).
I ordered the motor from amazon, the plastic motor mount turner is small, how can I screw the arm on to it? thx
Great video. Really liked your ideal. Only thing is wish you had showed it inside the incubator working. Thanks
Actually, my incubator video shows it working with eggs and everything:). This was just a follow up video to show folks how to make just the turner.
Lol, didn't realize my wife was logged in when I replied;). That Cara's Quick Tips reply was from me.
Cara's Quick Tips If you have a link I would like to watch it. Thanks again.
Larry342516 Homemade Incubator with Fan, Thermostat, and Automatic Egg Turner :)
Larry342516
Thank you for the video. I bought the Hova-Bator motor. Any ideas on how to extend the motor arm that comes with the motor. It is about 1/2 inch.
thanks for your help
tony
It comes out to 38.1 cm. By the way, Google has a nice converter function. If you type in "15 in to cm" it will convert it for you instantly:).
@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.
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.
You can get the dimmer switches at Home Depot and the AC voltage PWMs on ebay. I'd try the dimmer switch first as it's easy and cheap.
I have access to some free motors used in very large commercial washing machines. They are used to inject the detergents, bleach, fabric softeners etc. They run at 50 RPMs. However, during those times while the other motors are injecting their particular chemical, the others slow down to a snails-pace. If the digital circuit board can slow em down, HOW CAN I SLOW IT DOWN? Resistors, diodes what? I am clueless as to what a diode or resistor is! LOL!!! These lil motors are bulletproof.
The spacing doesn't really matter. That's just so the eggs will fit between the bars. Get that as tight as possible. I made the armature on the motor 2", so when it turned around, it would move the turner grate a total of 4". Most chicken eggs are between 6"-8" in circumference, so I wanted them only to turn halfway (or a little more) over when they reached the other side. 3"4" would be halfway, so I went with 4" just in case the eggs slid a little before starting to turn. .
really helpful, but can you list all the things you bought for making this egg turner, thanks!
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.
How come your dowelrods are spaced 2" but the egg is supposed to travel more than that (4 inches)?
Hi i have the incubator made temperature between 99.6-100.2 with ur style of turner mine is able to hold 80 duck eggs just what rpm motor will i need to move these i can put bearings under the 2x1 sides
i have found a 1 rpm motor on ebay would that do??
I'm sure there is a way to do it, but I'm not very familiar with how to program arduinos. They are awesome and could definitely work for this.
I would love to see it actually working.
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.
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:).
Is a synchronous motor the same thing as the motor you use?
@DoubleQz Yep, I found one on ebay, but there are some available on Amazon as well. 1 rpm or lowered would be best.
Am very happy for the innovative idea please I wanted to be your student am in Africa south sudan.
@rosebasa7483 Very welcome and I'm happy to hear you found my videos helpful!:)
have you figured out a way to build a double layered turnner for one bator?
I have a cooler-bator and need more room to put more eggs.
Julie Draper make 2 of them, stack them, and use a really long screw
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?
do you take the egg turner out at al before letting the chickens hatch?
@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!:)
very good
do i need to alter the speed or can it run as is
Okay! I'm having trouble visualizing that -- can you link me to a video of the egg turner in motion?
No prob man, good luck!
would this be ok its on ebay but i cant post the link
Soundlab Black 1 RPM Mains Powered Mirror Ball Motor Featuring Metal Case
This professional mirror ball motor features a tough black powder coated metal case, shaft with pre-drilled hole for mirror ball connection and a quiet motor. For mirror balls up to 2.1 kg. The fitted power cable (1.5 foot approx) allows you to add your own plug*.
Features
Colour: Black
Power Input: 230 V/AC @ 50 Hz
Packing: Box
Rotation: 1 RPM
Max Load: 2.1kg
@Mooseified There we go....couldn't think of it on camera;). The hatch rate is to-be-seen still. I have a batch in there now that's got 2 weeks left. I picked up the eggs locally from a guy who just happens to raise chickens, so hopefully they're all viable. I'll let you know how this first round goes. It seems like this method of egg turning is more natural than having them stand on end like the commercial versions, so hopefully it'll perform equally as well or better. We'll see;).
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.
@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!
If you roll your egg 4" , will it not be where you started from? Maybe only turn your eggs only about half that.
You're correct. I move the egg 2" because 4" would be all the way around.
How far apart would you put the dowel rod for quail eggs?
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?
i cant find the telescope clock motor any where could you please send me a link thx
@tlgrimmy well done.. good to see you had a sucessfull first run :D
@paco9045 The key will be to reduce friction. I put polished hardwood plugs with round ends on each corner of the turner rail so that the contact points were very small and smooth. You could use anything here, even wheels or ball bearings if you wanted to step it up a notch. Mine had very low friction and would turn the tray with 24 eggs in it, so it shouldn't have a problem if you smooth out all surfaces and make the contact points small. Let me know how it goes or if you have any more ?s:)
where do you buy fertilized eggs from
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!
@HomeDistiller That's a great idea and might as well use free stuff as opposed to buying. It would probably have significantly more torque as well.
Well you did forget one thing that was important like showing the thing running would have made a big difference I think! Still great vid