Goose Egg Trays - made especially to that specificationOK,
While on the subject of misting installations for waterfowl, it may be a good time to mention something about hatching goose eggs.
To my knowledge all the tests done on hatching goose eggs recommend one thing - goose eggs must lie horizontal for the best result.
Automatic incubators can't achieve this attitude ... not without some ingenuity ... my goose egg trays are specifically made for goose eggs.
As you can see in the picture my holes where goose eggs sit are not square but rectangular. The benefit here is obvious.
When the egg rack makes its turn, it rests at about + or - 45 degrees.
The oblong `nests' however allow the eggs to continue gently tilting sideways until the eggs come to rest against the short edge of each rectangle.
The geometry is such that the eggs end up resting in a horizontal or very close to a horizontal position.
Peafowl Egg TraysOK,
A Peahen egg is about the same size as a goose egg and we use the same tray for that species.
It does no harm to a peafowl egg to let it travel through 180 degrees, as does a goose egg.
However, for the perfectionist, and wouldn't we all be if it came to handling an expensive peafowl egg, we provide the means.
In the goose egg tray picture above you can see two plastic tabs moulded on the top edge of the long side of each hole
These are there for a purpose. They are used where the eggs are not required to tilt further than the egg rack's angle
You use the tabs to rig rubber bands across the holes.
You then push a rubber band apart and insert an egg, so it is held by the rubber band.
Other breeders rig their own idea of restraint such as a continuous length of wool looped around the tabs from one edge of the tray to the other.
You may not knit ... but it seems we all have have plenty of rubber bands.
Roostertail wrote:
The only thing that is problematic with the T2 at the moment is that it only has two trays.I really like the three tray system. It works when loading up each week. So I will have to work out a system that works. I could load up a tray every 11 days. Or maybe only put 58 eggs in each week. The E2 allows me to put in 72 eggs in a week. We are starting up the E2 tomorrow so we will an unreasonable number of chicks hatching over the next few weeks.
Yes,
The 2T with its 2 shelves needs a system of management other than an intuitive "Shelf1 Shelf2 Shelf3 = Week1 Week2 Week3"
My system consists of a calendar (one with a window pane for each day), a 0.3mm felt pen, and a roll of address labels.
On each egg before it goes in I mark its due date in tiny fineline pen (which is waterproof).
I group the eggs together in rows front to back like soldiers on parade, and attach a label to the tray in front of them.
On the label I write the Batch Number and I/D, Last/Turn and Due/Date
I then enter the batch info in the calendar 3 times.
The day the batch is set with the numbers of eggs and breeds, the day on which to put down in the hatching basket and the date due.
A system like this becomes absolutely essential in the larger Greatlanders where you need to keep tabs of multiple trays.
Many breeders also have mixed settings with quail and duck thrown in the mix.
Bob Peel
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