Open Source Chicken Incubator

Introduction

Chickens may be propagated readily from fertile eggs - so freerange chickens can be maintained in a healthy population even in presence of heavy losses to predators. A simple incubator should be available on any diversified farm. Natural chicken birth rates typically happen too late and too infrequently in the season for the chicken population to become self-sustaining. Freerange chickens, which do not require supplemental feeding - could be a great part of a community local food strategy.

In short, any Global Village should have an open source incubator. These are rather cheap - $40 - but it is useful to make one that is open source from a light bulb, thermostat, and an automatic rolling device.

The trouble with an incubator is that the eggs must be moved regularly. What's a simple design that can address this issue?

Design Implemented in 2005

We built a large incubator that could hold 200 eggs. It did not work well, as shifting it manually every day turns out to be a chore that one must attend to diligently.

Better Designs

Please suggest better designs with automatic egg turning.