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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. Most types of chickens have been bred for high egg production though, which means they have been bred to not "brood" as much, to not sit on eggs, because when they are brooding they won't lay any more eggs. Since most hens only brood under certain conditions then most of their eggs will never be warmed and protected until they hatch, and so an incubator is needed to hatch more eggs.

Some types of chickens are more broody, since some breeds have been bred for looks and not egg production they will brood on any eggs they are given. There are hundreds of different breeds in the bantam size, and any that have a large fowl counterpart tend to have the same traits. So there are breeds of bantams that are good broodies, and breeds that are not. There are also many breeds of large fowl that make excellent broodies. So a natural route for hatching chickens is to have an egg producing hen to lay eggs and a broodie hen to brood them.

An incubator keeps a large number of fertilized eggs safe and warm under ideal conditions until they hatch, in place of brooding hens.

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 because the embryo will become stuck to one side of the egg otherwise.

Research

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI0631.html
http://www.ogpbb.com/accessories/incubation-guide/hatching-a-chicken-egg.html - "The small end of the egg should be lower than the large end of the egg when set in the incubator. An embryo orients during incubation so that the head develops toward the large end of the egg where the air cell is located. A chick's head can orient away from the air cell of the egg if the small end is higher than the large end during incubation. An embryo oriented in the wrong direction will not hatch."

Natural hatching

http://www.agnet.org/library/pt/2003007/

Resource Map

http://blog.opensourceecology.org/?p=553

General Info

Links

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

Sketchup 3D Warehouse

Industry Standards

Brinsea Octagon

http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/instructions.html

Materials

foil backed rigid insulation board looks like what we want
Celotex is a company that makes foil backed rigid insulation board in the UK
http://building.dow.com/na/en/products/insulation/tuffr.htm TUFF-R

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

Design Proposals

Cabinet

3 Shelf Tilt

Design with three shelves for trays with 36 eggs.

File:Ose-eggincubator-20160409-1.skp

OSE Egg Incubator 2016

Design 1 - HexaHatch Revolution

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