Got my Leahy 415 redwood incubator up and running this winter, and a week ago we set our first hatch! This one is really a trial balloon since it’s a new incubator and the girls aren’t laying strongly currently. The weather has been brutal, and the nights are still long, so I don’t blame them! So, I’ve had my first hatch in for the week, and just added my second tray last night.
This Leahy is a manual turn incubator, so I have to turn the eggs three times a day, which is easy for me since I’m home and always check my incubators a couple of times a day and right before bed to make sure that temps and humidity are within parameters. However, the turning system of yore involved egg positioners that were for standard sized eggs back in the 1950s, and with us hatching a variety of heritage breeds, they didn’t work.
While I don’t mind manual turning, moving each egg by hand three times daily gets old fast, so I looked around and found a great inspirational video below:
The video on the left shows the version I came up with (if you can see the video preview, just click the triangle and it’ll come up).
We used PVC pipe and fiberglass rods that are made to hold up electric field fencing. It took us awhile to make the prototype (a few hours) because of gathering tools and sizing the spaces between the rods for our specific eggs, but it eventually worked! Last night, we whipped up a second one in under an hour in order to set Hatch #2.
Each day — morning, midday, and before I go up for bed — I pull or push each rack, check the hygrometer, fill the water pan if it’s needed, and close the box. Takes seconds/turn!
Tonight I’m candling Hatch #1! It will be interesting to see how fertility and air sacs are coming along.