UpCycle IT – R2I INDEX:

Blog #5 - Research

So under Hobbies, I believe Researcher is a very appropriate label for me.  :-)  Especially as I delve in the varied aspects of melding technology and farming.

Here is some of the interesting information I came across while researching incubation for chickens.  The distinction of chickens is important since various fowl incubation differ quite a bit from temperature and humidity to time of incubation.

Basic Information:

Generally there is some basic information shared for incubation of chickens manually:

1.  Obtaining fertile eggs.  It is important to obtain fresh fertile eggs.  No you can not use eggs purchased at the local grocery store and found in their refrigerators.  I will obtain mine from our own hens.  I will not know if they are all fertilized though so there is a chance of mixed results.  We believe a hawk recently took out one of our Roosters and this of course is a required item for fertilized eggs!

2.  Temperature varies if you are doing a "Still-Air" or "Forced-Air" implementation.  If you not implementing a fan, then you want the temperature to be at 101.5, measured at the top of the egg.  If you are using a fan then a temperature of 99.5 is a good setting.

3.  Minimum number.  As I mentioned above I will not know if all of my eggs have been fertilized as such setting at least 6 eggs improves the chances of having some successful chicks hatch and reach maturity.  Another factor is size of incubator, if you get a massive incubator that can hold 250 eggs then they will probably have a minimum number required to meet the temperature and humidity needed/expected.

4.  Approximately 21 days for Chicken eggs to hatch.

5.  Humidity should be between 40-50% for the first 18 days of incubation.  After you should raise it to 70%.

6.  Unlike our Easter Egg pictures, the egg should not be placed with the pointy tip up.  The wide tip (or bottom for most) should be elevated if possible or at the least the small tip should be as low as it can be placed. 

7.  Egg turning, at least 3 times a day.

Now this is just some basic information that seemingly can be found everywhere from 4H groups to survivalists to hobby farm user groups.  Many of them may make their own incubator from a Styrofoam box and manually roll their eggs themselves 3 times a day with a handy dandy calendar beside the incubator to appropriately mark each turn and milestone.

They may even have invested in an incubator that has a rolling mechanism to gently roll them on their sides automatically.

What was a little more interesting to me was reading on how commercial incubators operate and the level of studies and experiments that have went on to verify amount of times the egg should be turned and the minimal angles needed.

Commercial level Information:

There are a lot of educational links (as in College/University) showing that at one time the chicken egg was quite an interesting academic study.  Surprisingly most seem to be non-functioning now. 

One of the best solid sources I have found is

Pas Reform Hatchery Technologies

They provide some pretty interesting reasons why things are done a certain way commercially.  Such as why they place the eggs with the point down an why this can be a serious problem when human error mistakenly places them with the point up. 

There is a 12-30 percent reduction in the potential hatching of your eggs when the egg is placed point up.  "A hatchery loses 0.2 per cent of sellable chicks for each 1 per cent of fertile eggs placed with the small end up in a setter tray (Bauer et al, 1990)."  

Reference: Bauer F., Tullet SG and Wilson HR (1990). Effects of setting eggs small end up on hatchability and posthatching performance of broilers.

What does this mean?  Approximately 280,800 chicks will be lost per year from a commercial hatchery that does 1 million chicks a week.

Commercial hatcheries have large shelves (setting trays) that rotate their eggs the proper 45 degrees while keeping their eggs in a vertical position with the tip down.  After the 18th day the eggs are transferred to a hatcher tray where they will remain on their sides for the last 3 days and humidity is increased.

Taking this information into account has heavily influenced my design for my Refrigerator 2 Incubator project.  Please keep following along to see it as it develops!