Incubation

Incubation Basics
What size of incubator do I need ?
Give me a Quote for my Incubation Facilities

Incubation Basics

The incubation period for an ostrich egg is approximately 42 days.

A room will be required for cleaning the eggs that have been collected, weighing, recording and storing the eggs prior to incubation.

Eggs are typically entered into the incubator once a week to assist in the control procedures.

An ostrich egg takes is placed in an incubator for 38 days, and then placed in a hatcher for the remaining 4 days. The incubation room should be considered a CLEAN area with restricted access and correct hygiene protocol. The hatcher should be in a diferent room to the incubator as this is really a dirty area as eggs hatch into chicks.

All birds typically lose 15 % of their initial egg weight during the incubation process. You need to purchase an incubator that can give you optimum performance to achieve this.

There are three basic principles for a good incubator

" Constant temperature
" Humidity control
" Air Flow

You need to contact your incubator supplier for their advice on the temperature for ostrich incubation. This may be typcially 36.5 ºC ( 97.7 ºF). The minimum recommended temperature is 35 ºC, and the maximum 37ºC. It has been known for eggs to hatch in 57 days at 34.5ºC.

During the incubation process, the egg loses weight. It is the humidity inside the incubator that can control how much the egg should lose.

Working on a 1 % egg weight loss as the equivalent of 3 % relative humidity, if your eggs are losing an average of say 16% then by increasing the relative humidity you are increasing the amount of water in the air of the incubator and therefore making it more difficult for the egg to lose weight. Conversely if you find that your eggs are losing on average 13%, and your desire is to obtain an egg weight loss of 15%, then you need to decrease your relative humidity by 6%.

Just as important is air flow. Eggs are like lungs - they require oxygen and expell carbon dioxide. Air entering into the incubator should be fresh, and air exiting from the incubator should go out of the room so as to avoid the incubator inhaling used air.

Eggs are typically candled on day 14 to remove any infertile eggs. Candling is the process of placing light next to the egg to see if the egg is clear (infertile) or partially dark (fertile).

What size of incubator do I need ?

A hen lays one egg every other day when she's in full production mode. Over a fourteen day period, the maximum number of eggs she can lay is 7.

Assuming that you wish to set your eggs in the incubator once a week, you will be setting eggs on day 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 etc. Note that eggs that you have placed in the incubator on day 0 will be placed in the hatcher on day 38 or 39, thereby freeing up space for the next lot of eggs you set.

Maximum number of batches in an incubator at one time is therfore 6

" day 0 batch 1 is set
" day 7 batch 2 is set
" day 14 batch 3 is set, batch 1 is candled & any infertiles are removed
" day 21 batch 4 is set, batch 2 is candled & any infertiles are removed
" day 28 batch 5 is set, batch 3 is candled & any infertiles are removed
" day 35 batch 6 is set, batch 4 is candled & any infertiles are removed

On day 38 or 39, batch 1 is removed to the hatcher, leaving batches 2,3,4,5 and 6 in the incubator.

" day 42 batch 7 is set, batch 5 is candled & any infertiles are removed

This is the life-cycle of the incubator.

The maximum number of eggs than a breeder hen can therefore lay is theoretically 3.5 eggs per batch. Over 6 batches this is 21 eggs. Therefore the maximum incubation capacity required for one hen is 21.

That's the theory. In practice, not all hens will lay at the same time, nor will all hens lay be of maximum productivity. A more realistic approach is to use the figure of 2.5 eggs per batch which would require an incubation capacity for one hen of 15 eggs.

In the hatcher, eggs enter day 38 or 39, and expected hatch date is day 42. After all eggs are hatched, the hatcher should be cleaned ready for the next batch of eggs. Since one new batch enters the hatcher every week and the previous batch has been removed (eggs have hatched), the theoretical maximum capacity of the hatcher is 4 per hen. In practice, however, I would work on the figure of 2.5 eggs per hen.

Working through an example.

A farmer has 10 trios, a trio being the production unit of one male and two hens.

No. of hens = 20.

Maximum practical capacity for an incubator = 20 hens x 15 eggs/hen = 300.

Maximum practical capacity for the hatcher = 20 trios x 2.5 eggs/hen = 50.

Give me a Quote for my Incubation Facilities