In order to provide eggs and chickens to Factor e Farm Dream Team 30, we will need to raise our chicken population from 24 to about 300 chickens in 2009. For this, we need to hatch the chickens in an incubator, as natural brooding does not do the trick. We are getting 8 eggs per day even now, and this should increase to about 20. At this rate, it would take us one month of hatching to increase our flock to the needed level. We should aim for an incubator with 48 egg capacity, and do about 5 hatching runs.

Design Rationale

Naturally, hens take care of the eggs by turning them often and sitting on them to maintain the necessary conditions for hatching. The hatchability of eggs in this situation can be variable. Some hens can get 100% hatchability but this is not guaranteed.

An incubator keeps a large number of fertilized eggs safe and warm under ideal conditions until they hatch, ideally with a higher than normal hatchability percentage.

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.

The important conditions under the hen are temperature, humidity, ventilation, and turning. The eggs need to be turned for circulation, or else the fluids just sit there.

Incubating Eggs Factsheet on what is needed to hatch successfully

Research

Resource Map

http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=553

General Info

Other Designs

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/avianemb.htm
- http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/faq-ans1.htm
Constructing a Plywood Incubator - Pictures and BOM. No description. Has an apparently manual egg turner. No motor or timer. Has thermostat with simple wiring diagram.
http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_make_incubator.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI0631.html
http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-howto.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1982-03-01/Build-Your-Own-Incubator.aspx

Links

http://www.bantychicken.com/cgi-bin/bantychickenwiki.pl?Hatching

Past Work

See Open Source Chicken Incubator

Critique of past work - manual turning of eggs at least 3 times per day becomes a chore for an integrated human.

Research Summary

There is a lack of adequate design. University references have no automatic incubator designs. Mother Earth News is the only one with automatic turning, and the mechanism there is unnecessarily complex.
Infuriated with such nonsense, Marcin proposes HexaHatch.

Design

Humidity and Temperature

Humidity - $6 analog hygrometer at Amazon -1
Temperature - two thermometers
Thermostat and lightbulb for temperature control

HexaHatch Revolution

Hexahatch is a simple, compact, low cost, scalable design incubator with automatic turning via a $10 gear motor.