hey guys so a few episodes ago I talked
to you with regards to what was going on
at the chicken plot and in that episode
they said that we were going to collect
eggs over the next two or three days and
we were gonna set them into a homemade
incubator
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now this incubator
I've had for six or seven years have
made something like that and I did do a
video on it a a while ago and I'll put
it up in the description of bovine below
no it's looking a bit tatty here but
it's clean enough to to incubate these
eggs now the eggs that I've got I've got
thirty here and these eggs are all from
my chickens there we go so the 30 nice
sized eggs your guys and these are the
eggs that we're gonna be using in in
this incubator now I'm gonna run through
the incubator because a few of you have
asked over the years about how I sort of
incubated my own nadir and I did sort of
direct them to the last video but means
we're setting this up I thought what a
perfect opportunity to go through it
with you okay so essentially I have a
large polystyrene box here on the left
hand side here I've got a window cut out
of the polystyrene and all we've done is
taped in two panes of glass into that
here of a small little hole cut out and
in this hole is what's known as an
incubator warehouse control panel now
I'll show you that more in detail I now
turn this over now
so this piece of equipment here what it
is is a PC fun everybody will recognize
this it's just a computer fun there's a
little bit of circuit board underneath
and just here you will see this for
ceramic heat blocks and what happens is
the circuit tells those blocks to heat
up those blocks heat up and then this
fan circulates the air around the
incubator and that's essentially I would
do it now this incubator is really good
to raise your chicken eggs to hatch your
chicken eggs we're looking for a
temperature around thirty seven and a
half degrees Celsius or 99 to 102
Fahrenheit so we set this up on Celsius
but I can't set it as far right but I
set up on Celsius at the moment and what
we'll do is I've had it running for
about an hour and it's been all in
perfect temperature so we'll come back
to that top in a moment the next stage
is this here this is a bit of a
contraption I built as you can as you
can see the last thing we want to be
doing is going into the incubator
everyday opening it up turning the eggs
every couple of hours because all of a
sudden the heat is lost so and the
humidity that's in there now while we're
at it I'll talk about the humidity as
well the humidity in this needs to be
between 50 and 60% for the first 18 days
and then about 90 percent 85 to 90
percent then for the last three days
okay so the last thing we want to be
doing is opening this app to turn the
eggs so I built an automatic egg Turnham
we put that together in a moment but
essentially all it is is this
contraption here this is just a bracket
this is a clock motor and I've built a
little cam here off the clock motor and
essentially that clock motor is just one
of these things and this particular one
runs at one rpm just one revolution per
minute if you can get a half resolution
per minute motor it will save you having
to build a circuit that they've built
because this one's when the last thing I
wanted to do is to go right the way
around and put the eggs back into the
exact same place so essentially all we
want is that half rays of revolution but
I'll explain all of that as we get there
now
we have a window you again double
insulated along the side okay and this
window will allows us to see in through
there now there's a couple of other
components and these are these here the
first thing is this bit of 2x1 timber
that they've built it's a frame and I've
cut them some play and on the play I've
just kept it piece of pieces a thin play
and they stapled on and well that
creates as you can see through the
background look just a little slightest
work okay so besides these two things
guys the other thing we need is for
takeaway trays okay and this is how
we're going to control our humidity
alright so we just need four takeaway
trays please take away trays this bottom
frame has been built if I put it on here
to take these takeaway trays one and we
literally just swish him in
three four so we have our four takeaway
trees so if you could see them just
through there guys and we now place this
in the bottom
the takeaway trays will allow us to pull
water into there and control our
humidity the next step is to put this in
and what this is this is part of the egg
turning mechanism we've got basically
some bamboo in some one and a half by
three quarter and we have a piece of
going across the top with a slot in now
that comes down into the tray like that
and we literally take a nut and a bolt
there's a hole here and we just feed the
bolt through the hole and put a nut on
the end once I get it started guys we
can this little bit can be bit fiddly to
get going because of the angle Emma but
you know we go so all we do know where
this bolt is we'll do it right the way
up maybe yeah okay so that's how that
works okay I'm going to show you how the
mechanism works but before I do that we
need to go for a couple of other pieces
this is an old computer laptop charger
okay and that's what runs the fan and
heating mechanism hugo's odd yeah so we
need power for that but we also need
power for this clock motor now earlier
on I said about if
could get a half revolution per minute
motor you wouldn't need this this set
you could literally just plug that in
into an old timer that you could set to
go off once an hour but essentially
because I didn't have that I had to
either find the timer that were you
could set off once every half hour which
unlike Goldust has come find one so what
I did was I built a little circuit and
what this circuit does is it will out of
every hour it will turn this on for a
period of 30 seconds so 59 it will turn
it on at 59 and a half minutes it will
run for 30 seconds which will move this
through half a revolution and then it
will switch off for another 59 and a
half minutes okay so that's what that is
it's just basically a timing relay which
I built what for this system so what I'm
gonna do though I'm gonna skip that
tight that plug and I'm just going to
give you an idea of what it looks like
working okay guys so what would go you
know we've got five eggs all the spots
ink spots on the top and we literally
just plug this in now and the clock mug
dog will do the work for us
and if we watch you know where the clock
moved is going around here it's now
starting to pull the tray back and as
you can see these egg spots and these
ink spots are now going and when we have
it on the timer system that they built
it'll come to this end and then stop and
switch off for an hour so we know right
at the very end there so we can just
stop it so as you can see from the eggs
although you know they are sort of
because they're not sort of promised
spherical shapes they do tend to sort of
move around but that's what they're
doing the nest anyway and now if say
it's an hour later now and then that
timer will switch back in the clock I'll
kick back on
and it will just start to move this back
into position here it goes again the
eggs will roll in between
and as you can see look there's all the
spots no coming back to the surface
and then the timer works I guess that
end would switch off again so
essentially that's how the system works
obviously we have our heater that goes
on the top and on here we have a
thermostatic control and now make sure
it stays after the 37 and a half degrees
so what we're going to do now we're
going to throw the rest of our eggs in
I'm going to get everything connected up
and we're incubating 30 eggs in this one
I doubt they will all hatch because I'm
not sure of how fertilized eggs are
there's the the cockerel lay is one of
the rolls from our last hatching
and so I'm not sure
how this went all the hens that we did
have gone and we have just the older
hens there so there nothing to do with
this cockerel so before you start
getting all annoyed and saying oh you
know you're crossbreeding we're not so
we need to move some of these up because
some of these eggs are quite big as you
can see they're a really good-sized egg
so this incubator guys that I built will
take 35 but I'm only gonna put 30 in you
at the moment
there we are
so we just need to know just press spot
on each of them and that's just so I can
see that they are definitely turning
this won't hurt the chickens in any way
I've got two eggs in that role there
that are a bit tight so what we may need
to do just put them in a wider role and
put some smaller ones in you okay so
they all got dots on them these two this
one they I'm gonna take that one out put
that one in it that's better
that's better and who is either one not
one day I don't take that what when I
put that one in there I think maybe not
oh yeah we go that's what we do we'll
put him down there and we put that one
down in the exams a little bit wider not
sure she's away this one yeah that one
they hear me up better we need to find a
smaller egg and that's what sometimes
well it takes guys a little bit of
playing around a be out that's him right
that's it
so all 30 eggs are in the next thing we
need to do is just put a little touch of
water in the pan below now 50% humidity
don't need a lot
you only need water in two of them guys
and you don't need a lot in them it'll
keep it going and yeah that's fine
and then when we want to raise it to 90
we'll put water in the other two okay so
that's gonna sit in there just like that
but before we do we need to put this
thermostat on and I'll talk you through
this as we go they're just plugged in to
the side of the machine
and just shared it there it's no one is
telling me the temperature at the moment
is nineteen point three degrees that's
pretty much what it is room temperature
in here and HTR means the power that
it's using within the fan and everything
else in order to keep it at that
temperature as it gets closer to the
ideal temperature of 37 point 5 this
power ratio was stepped down now what I
normally do it's still in the garage at
the moment so I need to go and get that
I have a separate digital thermometer
and hydrometer so it tells us sorry
correction yeah a hydrometer so tell us
the humidity in there as well so we can
gauge everything better and I just
literally sit it you know on the front
of the screen here the tray can still
move with it in now
okay so temperatures climbing in there
and they see now okay so we've got some
stuff written on the glass sure the
first thing we got is temperature 37.5
or 99 to 102 Fahrenheit okay so that's
good we then got four other things set
candle remove tray in hatch and this is
just a visual reminder for me to know
exactly what's what
so we now basically need to write down
in here so for set is today's date which
is the 16th of the third and that is
2018
so we've wrote down a we're also gonna
write the time okay and it is 1825 okay
candle so we want to give these 10 days
now before we candle them so we're going
to candle on the 26 of the third 18 at
which point we will know which eggs
available within within these 30 that
we've put in the next thing we need to
do now is remove tray now that these are
going to take 21 days okay to hat and we
remove the tray three days before
because at the last three days we don't
turn the eggs they just sit there okay
so we need to do this now 18 days from
the 16th so it's 31
in March so that's going to give us the
3rd of Feb so we need to remove a tray
on the 3rd song of April 18 and the
hatch date will be the 6th of April 18
let me just check that now this is 15
days and 6 that's 21 perfect ok so we
know exactly no guys we can look at this
we know exactly when the chicks are
gonna hatch so we know on the 6th of
April we know we're going to have chicks
hatching out in here on the 3rd of April
we know we need to remove the tray and
raise the humidity on the 26th of March
where you're going to handle the eggs
and I'll show you that later stage and
we've just set them low today so all
we're doing now luck attempt has gone up
no to 22.2 degrees we're just leaving in
this no but for all intents and purposes
these eggs are no set and that's
essentially guys on how this incubator
works it's something I built years and
years and years ago and we have hatched
out hundreds and hundreds of eggs in
this incubator anyway opus episode was
of interest to you it's very easy to
build people build them with light bulbs
and all sorts I just wanted that little
bit more of being able to control the
humidity in the heat and everything else
and why I had this particular unit for
it which he did and move the sphere
around and everything else and then
built the circuit for the for the tree
to move because the last thing I wanted
to know was open this up and everything
else and I have to be here to do that
with this every hour or every two hours
whatever I said to that it'll roll all
the eggs just a half turn so anyway guys
that's it for this episode
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