Many domestic bird growers incubate eggs to help sustain
their flock over time. This user’s manual is designed to assist
those who wish to incubate small number of domestic poultry
eggs. The words "fertility" and "hatchability" are often used
incorrectly by small producers. A mother hen performs
hatching function at low efficiency [1]. And artificially, in an
incubator, a system which simulates the environmental
conditions required for such operation is used by poultry
farmers to do this operation within specified temperature and
relative humidity range. These ranges are between 36 – 39oC
and 50–70% respectively [2]. So as to maintain this
temperature range sustained heat supply is required.
In the most developing countries, the vast majority of poultry
farmers in the rural communities operate their farms on small
scale and/or even subsistence level. They often use a
collection of bush lamps and kerosene stoves to achieve the
heating requirements of the small hatcheries and brooders for
day-old chicks [3]. But the problems with these systems are
enormous. If we use fossil fuel, it produce toxic gases which
are harmful to eggs and poultry attendants. Electricity based
egg incubators are known to produce clean energy without
harmful effects on the environment but they are however
limited in operation due to the initial cost of procuring such
equipment coupled with the high cost of electric bill, frequent
power outages where grid electric exists. And thus it becomes
a dream for people in rural areas to get into poultry business.
That is why the proposed solar poultry incubator comes into
play. It can operate even in the absence of power from grid,
it works from the solar power and we need power from grid
only in the extreme cases