Performance Evaluation of the Developed Solar Powered Poultry Egg Incubator for Chicken

Abstract

A Solar Powered Poultry Egg Incubator (SPPEI) was developed and tested to evaluate its performance, and it was compared to an existing incubator that can incubate chicken eggs within the temperature range of 35◦C to 40◦C. The main components of the developed incubator are the incubating unit, the temperature device and the photovoltaic (PV) system. The developed incubator had 73% hatchability, 71% vigorous chicks and fewer dead embryos compared to the existing incubator that had 60% hatchability, 58% chick vigor and more embryos. The developed incubator hatched chicks starting on the 18th day until the 21st day of incubation, while the existing incubator hatched chicks on the 18th day until the 22nd day of incubation. The average temperatures in the developed incubator were within the acceptable incubation temperature range: at 37.72◦C (99.89◦F) in the morning, at 37.94◦C in◦ the afternoon (100.29◦F), and at 37.83◦C (100.09◦F) in the evening, while with the existing incubator, it is within 38.67◦C (101.6◦F), 38.74◦C (101.7◦F) and 38.52◦C (101.3◦F). The average relative humidities in the developed incubator are 60% in the morning, 60.3% in the afternoon and also 60.3% in the night while that of the existing incubator are 60%, 57.33% and 59%, respectively. The egg incubator was able to maintain the optimum conditions for the hatching of the chicken eggs, and was capable of incubating and hatching the chicken eggs effectively.