Importance of Incubation Equipment — AQAI
Incubation equipment is used to keep eggs warm at a particular temperature range and in the correct humidity so as to facilitate good egg growth and hatching. It is essentially a replacement for the warmth of hens when they sit on eggs as they brood. The results from using incubation equipment are highly dependent on the kind of equipment you choose, ventilation, egg turning and sanitation of the machines or eggs.
Therefore, at Aqai, we put together a list of incubation equipment to help guide you for the best output.
Setter and Hatcher
is a machine in which the correct temperature, humidity and turning is provided for the first 19 days of incubation.
is similar but without turning arrangement and having trays to hold the freshly hatched chicks where the eggs are kept for the last 3 days of incubation.
The various types of setters and hatcher are:
a) Corridor or walk-in incubators
b) Tunnel incubators
c) Vertical fan incubators
Compressed air system
Compressed air is used to activate the turning arrangement for the egg racks in setters and centralized compressed air system is used for removing dust and cleaning in the hatchers.
Electric Generator
An electric generator is needed to provide backup arrangements for electricity when there is power failure in the area. The generator should have sufficient capacity to provide all the important services and be located within the hatchery or near it.
Hatchery Automated Equipment
Hatchery tray washers: These clean the tray efficiently and also save lot of manpower.
Waste removal systems: These are equipment used to remove chicken excrement, hatchery waste, litter and dead chicks.
Egg transfer machines: Egg transfer from setters to hatchers is a crucial step in the whole process. This is done either by a simple transfer machine lifting eggs from trays and transferring to basket or fully automated unloading of the setter trolleys and automatic candling to detect development in the egg. This step is essential to avoid cracks and to avoid eggs getting inverted. The equipment has to be cleaned regularly to prevent cross contamination.
In-Ovo vaccination equipment: This machine delivers the vaccine into the embryo or in the amniotic fluid. Advanced machines detect and separate viable and non-viable embryos, vaccinate the live embryos and transfer the vaccinated eggs to the hatchery.
Sexing/grading systems: This uses machines to candle the eggs and uses spectroscopy to determine the color of the feather in chicks and thus determine their sex. It is suitable only for chicken strains which have feather colors different in the sexes. It is used by large hatcheries to separate the female chicks (which lay eggs) from the males.
High pressure pumps: These are used for cleaning with water, blowing air to wash the setters, colors regularly and keep them dry to lessen contamination.
Originally published at https://www.aqai.in.
