INCUBATOR EGG TRAYS

 

Egg trays for incubation comes in many different types and sizes.

We have plastic egg trays which are easly accessible in nearby poultry shops  or you can get them online.We also have home made which are used using wood ,pvc pipes,shade cloth,mesh wire etc.First we look at those egg trays which we buy from shops(Plastic egg trays). Plastic egg trays are generally used on automatic incubators and comes in different sizes depending with your required size of your incubator.The smallest being 28cm ×28cm which can hold up 30eggs.These trays are connected to the auto turning motor so that they rotate regullary to the set rotation time stamps. Trays are set at a rotating angle of 45° moving up and down , they have a special hole size that can hold the eggs and prevent them from falling off.Plastic trays are strong and last long in the incubator.

Homemade Egg tray.

These trays are mostly designed by your creativeness and they normally don't have a specific measurement guideline.Mostly we make these trays using wood(brandering),shade cloth,mesh wire,screws,nails and plywood strips.Homemade tray are usually for manual incubators thus they hold the egg and we rotated them manually using our hands on a certain time frame. We also have Pvc egg trays which are made using pvc pipes and those pipes purpose is to roll the eggs (turn) them semi-matically or automatically. The designs of the pvc trays depends also on your creativity and the capacity you want to hold determines your trays.

It is very important to know the spacing og trays from one to the other and i strongly reccomend to use these guidelines for better incubators  and higher hatch rate.

Automatic incubators 17.5cm and manual 13,5cm. 

TEMPERATURE CONTROLLER FOR INCUBATORS

 

Temperature controllers comes in different models and capacity.Today i am going to look at two types of temperature controllers. 

PURPOSE OF TEMPERATURE CONTROLLER.

Temperature controllers are used in incubation to provide the required temperature at a constant level all round the incubation period.Eggs that are fertile are living things and for them to develop from embyro to chickens they require certain temperatures to full grow. This is the main reason when we build incubators we need temperature controllers to regulate the temperature inside our incubators.

M452 Controller.

This is the most efficient and money saving controller and it regulates both temperature and humidity in our incubators.It is set to a required temperature (For incubation 37,5°C to 37,8°C) when set the moment it reaches the set temperature it will automatically switch off so that it provide the much needed temperature for incubation.M452 controller is connected to the 220V power supply and has an excellent level of accuracy. It also controls humidity in our incubators with the same mechanism of switching off automatically when it has reached the required humidity.When the temperature and humidity decrease or is below the required percentage or degrees it will switch on automatically , this process goes on until the incubation period ends.

Temperature controllers should be switched on all the time and we have power shedding we will use digital temperature and humidity controllers which are good for backing up electricity powered controllers.We have to maintain temperature for eggs to hatch.

12VOLTS DC FAN FOR INCUBATORS

 

When building an egg incubator you need good quality parts and i will introduce you to the best materials for you to produce good incubators.

12 Volts DC Fan

This is one of the most important part needed to build an egg incubator.It's very neccessary to have this fan if you are to build/construct an incubator which has the capacity to hold more than 60 eggs(with the use of egg trays). This fan is connected to DC power output meaning that if you have a 12V battery you are good to go and if you have power source(electricity) you need to connect this fan to a 12V DC adaptor for it to be supplied with enough energy to make it work.

Note: Connecting this fan direct to 220V is strongly not reccomended it will surely burn out and will not work.

The use of this fan is very important and will explain how it works inside the incubator.

HOW IT WORKS ?

This fan is for air circulation inside your incubator and the main purpose of it, is to circulate air freely inside the incubator.Eggs need oxygen to survive (develop). So we use the 12V fan on our incubators to rotate the air inside to provide good air distrubition in our incubator. The number of fans to be installed is determined by the egg capacity of your incubator.

• 60 egg incubators you need the least 2 fans connected on both ends like facing each other (opposite directions). These fans should run continuosly non stop until the incubation proccess is complete.
• 100-150 Egg incubators...3 or 4 fans must be installed in the incubator.The positioning of these fans is important and good guidelines should be used to make the perfect setting up of your fans. Depending on your box you will have to consult an expert to give you advice on where to place your fans.These fans should run for the entire incubation period thus 21 days.
• 200 or more Egg incubator you will need four or more fans including one extraction fan *will look into extraction fan in details later*. The positioning of these fans also depends on how you have build your incubator box and these fans should run non stop for the entire incubation period.

Building an incubator without fan/s is not adviceable please make sure you try by all means to get these fans.New or second hand fans are available in your area.