Homemade Egg Turner

An incubator is the tool used to artificially regulate the environment of a fertilized egg. Incubators provide stable heat and humidity to help an egg hatch into a healthy and viable chick. In order for the egg to grow normally, it must be rotated or turned to keep the chick from adhering to the shell and suffering death or deformity. A homemade egg turner can be made from easily available supplies.

Things You'll Need

  • Cardboard egg carton to fit incubator
  • Scissors
  • Tape measure
  • 1 full-length stick of small-diameter PVC pipe
  • Circular or hand saw
  • 4 PVC elbows to fit pipe diameter
  • 2 or 3 PVC T-joints to fit pipe diameter
  • Saw
  • PVC pipe glue
  • Incubator box
  • Reciprocal saw or kitchen knife
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Instructions

    • 1

      Prepare the cardboard egg carton. Cut out the bottoms of each egg carton cell to ensure proper ventilation for the eggs in the incubator.

    • 2

      Measure the egg carton to determine the finished size of the homemade egg turner. Make the PVC pipe egg turner slightly smaller than the cardboard egg carton. Ideally, the egg carton should be just smaller than the incubator to ensure that it does not tip too much when turned.

    • 3

      Measure the elbow and T-joint PVC pipe pieces. Record the measurements. Each corner of the homemade egg turner will have an elbow and the center of each length side will have a T-joint. Subtract these measurements from the overall perimeter of the egg turner to determine the necessary lengths to cut the small-diameter PVC pipe. For example, if you need the width of the egg turner to be 16 inches and each elbow adds two inches to the width of the egg turner, cut a 12-inch piece of PVC pipe. For the length of the egg turner, cut the PVC pipe in half, as the T-joint will be in the center, resulting in two smaller pieces of pipe for each side.

    • 4

      Mark the PVC pipe to the determined lengths. Cut the pipe with a circular or hand saw. You should have two longer pieces of pipe for the width of the egg turner and four shorter pieces of pipe for the length sides. Set aside the remaining length of uncut PVC pipe.

    • 5

      Glue the pieces of the PVC pipe egg turner together. Glue each longer piece of PVC pipe to an elbow piece. Glue a short piece of PVC pipe to the opposite end of the same elbow so that the short pipe is perpendicular to the longer piece of PVC pipe. At this point, you should have two sections. Connect each section by placing the short piece of each pipe section into opposite ends of the T-joint. Make sure that the third section of the T-joint is facing outward.

    • 6

      Place the cardboard egg carton on the PVC egg turner frame and place the homemade egg turner in your incubator. Mark and cut holes into the incubator container where the open end of the T-joint protrudes from the egg turner frame. Use a reciprocal saw for wood boxes and a kitchen knife for foam boxes.

    • 7

      Cut the remaining PVC pipe in half with the circular or hand saw. Place each pipe section through the hole in the incubator box from the outside and push it into the open and outward-facing end of the T-joint. Secure with PVC pipe glue. This creates two handles on the outside of the incubator.

    • 8

      Trim the PVC pipe handles that protrude from the incubator box to your preferred length. If desired, attach a third T-joint piece to one of the PVC pipe handles, with the single opening attached to the handle pipe and the top of the T facing away from the incubator to create a hand hold for easy grasping. Glue this in place.

    • 9

      Test it by turning the handle from side to side. The egg turner should move freely in the holes in the incubator box, causing the PVC egg turner frame and cardboard egg carton to tilt from side to side in the box. Enlarge the holes in the incubator box with the reciprocal saw or kitchen knife if necessary.