Marcin takes us into the OSE One Room Schoolhouse and this time explains how to build a chicken incubator in which 107 eggs can be placed. This is evolution of our previous work from last year, where we go from a forced-air to a still-air, automatic egg-turning incubator. This 8 minute video shows how to build the aptly named Hexahatch v2.0:
We will now put what we’ve learned in this lesson into practice and report back with the results later. See the link to the Hexahatch 2 page on the wiki for parts sourcing, and the CAD of the incubator at OpenPario.
We just let the hens hatch our eggs. Sure, they don’t have perfect hatch rates, but it is far cheaper, and uses no electricity!
Also, I think it is important to breed chickens that can set on eggs. And chicks that are hatched by the hens tend to be healthier and live longer than our incubator chicks.
Sounds like a great way to increase your flock quickly. I’m looking forward to the update on this project.
I am about to read “The Human Powered Home” by Tamara Dean. Given the small amount of rotation needed for Hexahatch, I wonder if the motor could be replaced by some mechanical way to store the energy. Like and old-school wind-up alarm clock, just bigger.
[…] did not work well, primarily because the big rotor was too heavy. This year’s design – Hexahatch v2.0 – was changed to a simpler, still-air design, with a flat disk as the rotor for turning the […]
[…] then visit David Daffae's site on how to choose the best Incubators Chicken for your needs. Incubating eggs is a surprisingly difficult but also surprisingly fun process and having a good incu…g. The first thing I should say before we get started is that you don't need to buy the most […]
Building a homemade egg incubatoris the one I want to pursue in doing business. I think this will help me earn money that would provide to my daily needs.