A minimum space of 3 ft should be allotted between the sides of adjacent setters and from wall to sides or back of the setters. The exact room size involves the aisle and working area necessary to move the eggs and chicks in and out of the machines.

The incubating equipment takes relatively little floor space. The size of the setter room will depend on the make of the equipment used. Setters (incubators) are kept in this room. It can be achieved by providing sufficient number of ceiling fans in this room. Here eggs are kept for the purpose of drying the ‘sweat’ over eggs. The room must be refrigerated to maintain a temperature of 650c A forced-air type of refrigeration unit is required in order to keep a uniform temperature throughout the room. A fan should be used to circulate the air and exhaust the fumigant.Įgg holding room should be about 8 ft high, insulated, slowly ventilated, with complete air movement, cooled, and humidified. The fumigation room should be as small as possible in order to reduce the amount of fumigant used. Eggs should be delivered to the hatchery through a specialized door. It is the only entrance and exit, and the hatchery becomes an isolated unit as far as human beings are concerned.Įmployees delivering hatching eggs to the hatchery must not enter the hatchery in the course of their duties. To maintain bio-security it is essential that all persons entering the premises shower and change into clean clothing in an adjoining room. Consequently, hatching schedules will affect the size of some rooms in the hatchery. Usually, hatcheries of medium size will hatch chicks twice a week, but large hatcheries will hatch more than two hatches per week. Slope of the floor should never be greater than 0.5 inch in 10 feet. The concrete must be given a glazed finish.

Floor : All floors must be concrete, preferably with imbedded steel to prevent cracking.

The door openings should be 8 ft high and at least 4 ft wide, and doors double-swinging.

Doors : The hatchery doors are wide enough for easy movement of trolleys, chick boxes etc.

Hence, the ceiling material is to be waterproof.

Ceiling material : Most hatchery rooms have a high humidity, and during cold weather condensation of moisture on the ceilings is common.

Walls : Fireproof material should be used in constructing the walls of the hatchery also prevents the growth of molds common to walls that are porous and absorbent.

Height of the ceiling : The height of the ceiling should be at least 10 ft.

Find the depth of the incubators then allow space for the working aisles, behind the machines and the walls.

Width of the hatchery : The width of the setter and hatcher rooms is to be determined by the type of the incubator used.Brief general points to be considered are,

Hatchery buildings should be intricately designed, properly constructed, and adequately ventilated. Such a flow affords better isolation of the rooms and there is less human traffic throughout the building. In other words, eggs and chicks should flow through the hatchery from one room to the one next needed in the hatching process. Hatchery should be constructed in such a manner that the hatching eggs may be taken in one end and the chicks removed at the other. Also, necessary space to be allotted for future expansion. The size of the hatchery is based on the egg capacity of the setters and hatchers, number of eggs that can be set each week and number of chicks hatched each week. The hatchery should be situated at least 1000 ft from poultry houses to prevent horizontal transmission of disease-producing organisms from the chicken houses to the hatchery. The hatchery area should be a separate unit with its own entrance and exit, unassociated with those of the poultry farm. The chick hatcheries are modern buildings that provide separate rooms for each hatchery operations, but each room has its individual requirements. Incubation is the act Forced draft incubators

Parts of incubator