Development of a Dual Powered Poultry Egg Incubator

Abstract

This paper entails the development of dual power poultry egg incubator. It is a 300 egg capacity incubator that was designed to be powered using two sources of energy which are solar energy and electrical energy. The materials selected were wood, mild steel and aluminium. The wood was coated inside with black paint in order to absorb heat making used of four headlight car's bulbs and four DC fan of 1.3A rating each. The temperature and egg turning mechanism were regulated electronically. The results obtained include power supply to the system through out of 21-26 days without power interruption until hatch period by making use of 12 Volts 200 A battery, solar panel 1.5 A rating, charge controller, flex solar cable wire, and battery charger (AC-DC). The incubator mechanism was programmed to display after 2 hours interval. The incubating chamber was maintained throughout the incubating period within a temperature range 37.0oC to 37.5oC using a programmed temperature sensor; and relative humidity ranged from 45% to 60%. The percentage hatchability of the eggs was found to be 81%