Choose an incubator by two numbers before you look at any machine: how many fertile eggs you can collect in a week, and how many hours your power stays off in a bad week. A machine that holds more eggs than your hens lay runs half empty. A machine with no backup behind it can lose a whole hatch to one long outage, whether that comes on day 3 or day 19.
Halaal Farms Ghana sells incubators from the farm and hatchery at Opeikuma, Kasoa. We do not list models, capacities or prices on this page. You tell us what you want to hatch and we advise on a size. What follows is what to know before that conversation.
Size the machine by your eggs, not by the label
Hatching eggs keep for about a week in a cool room before the hatch rate starts to fall. So the useful size of an incubator is the number of good fertile eggs you can gather in seven days or less. Fertile means the hens run with cocks, commonly about one cock for every 8 to 10 hens.
Take a flock that gives you 15 clean, well-shaped eggs a day. That is roughly 100 eggs a week. You can set 100, wait three weeks for the hatch and set again, and a machine for about 100 eggs is enough. If you want chicks coming off weekly, three settings sit in the machine at the same time and the newest needs turning while the oldest is hatching. That calls for a setter of around 300 eggs and separate hatching space.
Two more points on the label. Capacity is counted in standard chicken eggs. Quail and guinea fowl eggs are smaller and need their own trays, and turkey eggs are larger, so fewer fit. And the label says how many eggs go in, not how many chicks come out. As an example sum only: if 85 of 100 eggs are fertile and 80 percent of those hatch, you take out 68 chicks, about half of them cocks. Our article on selecting and storing hatching eggs covers the part of that result you control before setting.
Forced air or still air
A forced-air incubator has a fan that moves warm air around the cabinet, so every egg sits at nearly the same temperature. The usual setting for chicken eggs is about 37.5 °C. Almost every machine above table-top size is forced air, and it is the type to choose if you can.
A still-air incubator has no fan. Warm air rises, so the top of the machine is hotter than the bottom and the eggs on one level can differ from the next. Makers usually tell you to run it a degree or so higher, measured at the top of the eggs. Still-air machines are small and simple, with little to break. They work for a few dozen eggs in a room with a steady temperature and an owner who checks the thermometer often.
If a seller cannot tell you which type a machine is, look for the fan and ask to see it running.
Automatic turning and the other features worth paying for
Eggs must be turned for the first 18 days so the embryo does not stick to the shell. By hand that means at least three times a day, at regular hours, with the lid open each time. People manage it for a week and then miss a Sunday. An automatic turner tilts the trays on a timer with the door shut, and it is the feature most worth its cost.
After that, look for these:
- A digital thermostat you can check. Put a separate thermometer among the eggs. If the display and the thermometer disagree, believe the thermometer and ask the seller to adjust the machine.
- A humidity reading and a water tray you can refill without opening the main door. Humidity is commonly kept around 50 to 55 percent for most of incubation and raised to about 65 to 70 percent for the hatch.
- A temperature alarm that sounds when the cabinet runs too hot or too cold.
- A window, so you can watch a hatch without lifting the lid.
- Smooth, washable surfaces and removable trays. A machine that cannot be scrubbed after a hatch carries germs into the next one.
- Spare parts. Ask whether a fan, heating element, thermostat and turning motor can be bought for this machine in Ghana, and from whom.
The step-by-step routine once the machine is home is in our guide to hatching in a small incubator.
Setter and hatcher: why larger machines split the job
Incubation has two stages with different needs. For the first 18 days the eggs sit in the setter, turned regularly at moderate humidity. Around day 18 they are candled, the clear and dead ones come out, and the rest go into the hatcher: flat baskets, no turning, higher humidity, until the chicks are out and dry.
A small machine does both jobs in one cabinet. That works when all the eggs were set on the same day. It works badly when eggs of different ages share the cabinet, because the hatching batch needs still trays and damp air while the younger eggs still need turning. Hatching also fills a machine with fluff and shell that must be cleaned out, which is hard to do around eggs still incubating.
So decide early how you will run it. One batch at a time suits a single combined machine. Weekly settings need a setter with a separate hatcher, or two machines. How to candle eggs explains what you should see at the transfer.
Power cuts, inverters and generators
An incubator has to hold its temperature for three weeks without a break. Mains power in Ghana cannot be counted on to do that without a single cut, so the backup is part of the purchase, not an extra for later.
Start by asking for the machine's wattage. Then do the sum. As an example, a machine that draws an average of 100 watts through a 10-hour outage needs 1,000 watt-hours, and a battery should not be drained flat, so the battery bank must be larger than that. The heater switches on and off, so average draw is lower than the rated figure. Ask the seller for both numbers.
- Inverter and battery: switches over by itself, silent, suits small and medium machines. Size it with the person installing it.
- 12-volt input: some small incubators can run directly from a battery. Ask.
- Generator: carries bigger machines, but somebody must be there to start it at two in the morning unless you pay for an automatic changeover, and it needs fuel in stock.
- Voltage protection: low or surging voltage damages control boards. A stabiliser or surge protector is cheap next to a new board.
During a cut, keep the door shut and the room closed. A short cooling does far less harm than overheating. Protecting a hatch during outages goes through what to do hour by hour.
The room counts too. An incubator can add heat but cannot cool. In a zinc-roofed store that climbs into the mid-30s in the afternoon, the eggs overheat, most of all in the last week when the embryos give off heat of their own. Put the machine in a shaded room with a ceiling, on a level table, out of direct sun and away from poultry house dust.
What a small incubator can and cannot do
It can hatch eggs from your own local chickens, guinea fowl, turkeys and quail, replace birds you lose, and give you chicks at a time you choose. For a household flock or a small breeder of local or dual-purpose birds, that is real value.
It cannot do several things buyers sometimes expect:
- It cannot sex chicks. About half of what hatches will be cocks. If you want hens for eggs, you feed the other half until you can tell them apart.
- It cannot vaccinate. Chicks from your own machine start with no vaccines. Agree a programme with a vet or your district veterinary office before the hatch.
- It cannot reproduce commercial hybrids. Broilers such as Ross 308 and layers such as Hy-Line come from crossing special parent lines. Eggs from your own broilers or brown layers do not give chicks that grow or lay like them.
- It cannot fix poor eggs. Old, dirty, cracked or infertile eggs fail in any machine.
And it does not replace the brooder. On hatch day you need heat, feed and water ready, as for bought chicks. The feeders, drinkers and brooding equipment page has the list.
When the hatching service or day-old chicks cost you less
An incubator is not always the cheaper road, and we would sooner say so before you buy one.
You set eggs a few times a year. Bring them to our egg hatching service. You pay for the setting and carry no machine, no backup power and no repairs.
You want commercial broilers or layers. Buy broiler day-old chicks or layer chicks. They are the commercial strains named on those pages, and they are vaccinated at the hatchery before they leave. A farm incubator cannot give you either.
You have no breeder flock yet. You can buy fertile hatching eggs, but then the egg cost, the transport and the eggs that fail all land on each chick that hatches. Work that sum before buying a machine.
Your own incubator earns its place when three things are true together: a steady supply of fertile eggs, a use or a buyer for the chicks from each hatch, and power you have already secured.
What to tell us, and what to check when you collect
Send the order form on this page with incubator selected, and include:
- the species you will hatch, and how many eggs you expect to set at a time;
- whether you will set one batch at a time or weekly;
- your power: mains only, prepaid meter, inverter, generator or solar, and how long cuts usually last where you are;
- the room where the machine will stand;
- whether you have hatched before.
We reply with our advice on size and type and with a price. Incubator prices depend on capacity, on features such as turning and alarms, and on what the machines cost at the time, which is why none is printed here. The price is confirmed before you pay, and nothing is paid on the website. Payment is by cash, mobile money or bank transfer.
When you collect at Opeikuma, by appointment, ask to see the machine switched on. Watch the fan and the turner move, compare the display with a thermometer, check that the trays, water tray and power lead are all there, and ask what warranty and instructions come with it. You can also reach us on 024 915 1503.
Questions buyers ask
How do I work out what size of incubator to buy?
Count the clean, normal-shaped eggs you collect in seven days from hens that run with cocks. That number is one setting. If you will set once and wait for the hatch before setting again, buy for that number. If you want a hatch each week, the setter must hold about three settings at once, with hatching space on top.
Can I hatch eggs from my layers or from crates bought in the market?
No. Table eggs come from hens kept without cocks, so they are not fertile and nothing will develop however good the incubator is. You need eggs from a breeder flock with cocks, or fertile hatching eggs bought for the purpose. Fertile eggs from commercial hybrid hens also do not produce chicks that perform like their parents.
Will an incubator survive the power cuts we get?
The machine will, but the hatch may not without backup. A cut of an hour or two with the door kept shut usually costs little. Long or repeated cuts lower the hatch and delay it. Before you buy, ask the machine's wattage and plan an inverter with battery, a generator, or a model that also runs on a 12-volt battery.
Can one incubator hatch chicken, guinea fowl and quail eggs together?
It is better to set them separately. Chicken eggs take about 21 days, guinea fowl about 26 to 28 and quail about 17 to 18, so turning must stop at a different time for each. Quail and guinea fowl eggs also need trays that fit their size. Tell us which species you plan to hatch.
Is it cheaper to buy an incubator or to use your hatching service?
If you set eggs a few times a year, the hatching service usually costs less, because you pay a fee for each hatch and carry no machine, backup power or repairs. Your own incubator starts to pay when you have fertile eggs to set regularly, somewhere to sell or use the chicks, and power you can depend on.