In nature, the female parent incubates eggs inside her nesting box. However, the early stage of incubation is not continuous, as the female parent often “takes breaks”. Because of this intermittent nature of brooding, only after 7 days it is possible to be certain of an egg’s fertility. In addition, sometimes the female parent starts to incubate even before laying all of her eggs, causing the last egg to develop a bit later.

When a breeder wants to take the eggs for artificial incubation, it is better to wait until the entire clutch has been laid and harvest from the nesting box few eggs at once. This provides better chance for all of the eggs to hatch more or less in the same time. It is good practice to leave them at least 24 hours before incubating them. Fertile eggs can be stored for up to 7 days before being incubated and it is recommended to keep them at a room temperature of between 15ºC to 22ºC. During this waiting period the eggs must be turned manually several times a day.

It is possible to determine whether an egg is fertile or not starting from day 4 of incubation, however it is advised to wait 7 days to be on the safe side. Placing an Egg Candler or another light source behind the egg allows you to observe the development of an embryo’s blood vessels around the inner surface – a sign of a fertile egg.

If after 7 days of artificial incubation no blood vessels appear – the egg is infertile and it is recommended to take it out of the incubator.

D.M.P. Engineering developed an affordable Egg Candler for poultry and all other birds. This egg candler allows you to examine fertility in both white and brown eggs as well.

The 3 most important factors of the incubation process are Temperature, Movement (egg rolling) and Relative Humidity – a measure of the amount of water vapor in the air at a specific temperature. It is given as a percentage value. Relative humidity depends on the temperature of the air, as warm air can hold more moisture than cold air.

Originally, parrots in the wild of different regions were adjusted to different relative humidity percentages; e.g. the Amazon, the Macaw, or the African Grey from the Rain Forests were adjusted to higher RH values than the Cockatoo, the Rosella, or the Ring Neck from the dryer areas such as the Australian Outback.

However, parrots in captivity are bred outside of their natural habitat, and therefor the RH values in these new environments might not be as optimal for egg incubation. In addition, the optimal relative humidity values for the same species could be different for various climates.

During the embryo’s development, fluids in the egg are evaporated contributing the egg’s weight loss. By weighing the egg, one can determine the proper RH value for a specific parrot at a certain climate, and adjust it accordingly in the incubator.

How to calculate an egg’s weight loss

Well-known researches indicate the ideal weight loss for an egg during the incubating process (between 18-28 days) is 15% (± 3%).

For example: A Grey African’s egg weighs 16 grams at the start of a 28 day incubation period.

The ideal weight loss during the whole incubation period would be 2.4 grams (16 grams X 15%). The weight loss during one day would be 0.0856 grams (2.4 grams divided by 28 days)

According to the calculation above, this Grey African’s egg should weigh 0.34 grams less after 4 days, meaning 15.65 grams (4 days X 0.0856 grams = 0.34 grams; 16 grams – 0.34 grams = 15.65 grams).

If the egg weight is as mentioned above, the relative humidity values inside the incubator are correct.  If the egg weight is higher than 15.65 grams, the relative humidity percentages are too high and must be lowered. If the egg weight is lower than 15.65 grams, the weight loss is incorrect and the relative humidity percentages should be raised.

It is important to mention that the RH values are never constant during the incubation process – this a normal phenomenon. The breeder should attempt to maintain an average level of the desired RH value throughout the incubation process.

Some breeders incubate many eggs by using several incubators simultaneously, each with its own different RH values, transferring eggs between them according to the eggs’ need. The lost of weight should be measured using an accurate scale every 3-4 days. This procedure might seem a bit complicated at the first, however with a little experience a breeder can determine the proper RH values suitable to his different species, even without weighing the eggs.

The relative humidity values are different from incubator to incubator and depend on the incubator’s structure and air movement within. Therefor it is not possible to compare the RH values between different incubators.

If you are uncertain of the the proper RH value for your parrot during the beginning of the incubation process, try to set an average of 65% – 70% RH level for Rain Forest parrots, and  60% – 65% RH for those from dryer areas. However, the only way to determine the proper RH value is using the process described above. Setting the RH values without without calculating the eggs’ weight loss would be incorrect and irresponsible.

 How to measure the relative humidity

As I have mentioned above, the presence of relative humidity in the incubator is an essential key for the incubation process and for successful hatching. Since humidity levels are relative and vary dynamically with changes of temperature, humidity measurements are problematic and should be measured according to the standard Temperature and Relative Humidity Charts showing the relative humidity in various temperatures.

Most of the standard humidity meters are designed to be used in a room temperature. These meters are inaccurate because a change in the room temperature causes them to display a wrong reading of the humidity level. A digital hygrometers might be housed in an attractive display, but those are generally inaccurate and one cannot determine if they deviations they display are significant or not. In addition there’s no certain way to determine whether a digital hygrometer displays  incorrect humidity.  Accurate digital hygrometers are very expensive and require periodic calibration. Several types of hygrometers exist for home use, but they are unsuitable for an incubator.

It is recommended to use an accurate Temperature / Humidity Measure, that is designed especially for incubators maintained at an average of 37.3°C and measures the relative humidity in percentages. The absence of such a humidity meter in today’s market drove us to come up with our own unique solution: the D.M.P temperature\humidity meter based on the wet\dry bulb principle.

After being a parrot breeder for many years, David Vishnia has decided to take a closer look at the incubating process in nature and to concentrate, for starters, on the Temperature issue.

“In all the professional books that I’ve read, all the experts say that each species has a different incubating temperature and the more accurate the temperature is – the better the hatching results should be”

To verify this bold statement, he used small-sized data loggers and hid them inside artificial eggs. Those eggs were then placed alongside genuine ones within the nesting box. The loggers were programmed to record temperature readings from inside the egg every 10 minutes. After a period of time, in which the eggs were under the brooding mother, David removed them downloaded the data from the loggers to his computer.

“Surprisingly, the data received from the loggers was not what I expected and painted a totally different picture. The temperature inside the again wasn’t fixed. In fact – it fluctuated between 35 Degrees Celsius and 39 Degrees Celsius and even higher – 40.5 Degrees Celsius… which makes sense because the brooding mother’s temperature is between 41- 42 Degrees Celsius. All the information,  both from the nesting boxes in my aviaries and from birds in the wild showed the same results!
Furthermore, despite the differences in temperature, the hatching results were very good…
After thinking it over, the conclusions were inevitable: if this is what happens in nature, we should create the same conditions in artificial incubation!”

The next step in David’s research was to understand what caused this temperature fluctuation. He explains:

“at first, the brooding female warms the eggs’ upper part by touching it with her body and so it gets warmer than the egg’s lower part. In addition, she rolls the eggs with her beak, moving the warm eggs away and bringing the colder ones closer. All of this during an approximate cycle of an hour & a half. However, neither the temperature changes nor the length of the rolling cycle repeated itself accurately.”

The next step was checking the eggs:

“the experts say that the air pocket inside the egg enables the embryo to breath in the first minutes before the external PiP. It may be true but this is not the main reason. In my opinion, the air pocket allows expansions and contraction of the fluids inside. When the temperature goes up, expansion occurs and the air goes out from the air pocket. When the temperature goes down, a suction is created that allows oxygen to penetrate through the porous eggshell to the embryo.
We can describe this process as “breathing” and it contributes to the embryo’s proper development. A very accurate temperature will prevent the embryo from getting the desirable amount of oxygen it needs. This theory can be supported by candling the egg after 5 days. Then you see that the first blood vessels are attached to the eggshell in order to absorb oxygen for the embryo.

While checking chicken eggs’ embryos I found presence of blood vessels attached to the eggshell until the very last moment of hatching. The embryo’s body absorbed it until he could breath independently through the hole he “PiPed” in the eggshell. Obviously this “PiP” gets made in the air pocket where no blood vessels are present.

It is important to mention that while the embryo starts hatching the breeder can hear his twittering; These are not  stress signs but an indication that the embryo has started to breath by its own. Any intervention at this stage could harm the blood vessels and cause the embryo’s death”.

The temperature’s changes are implemented in the Inca Incubators to guarantee that the embryo will receive enough oxygen to develop as best as possible. Moreover, because we replicate the natural incubating process as explained above, the chicks are stronger, more vivid and lively – and that brings an entirely different perspective to artificial incubation….

David Vishnia summarizes:

“to design a complicated and heavy incubator with many components is easy, but to design a simple, neat & light appliance that will give almost 100% hatching success rates is very hard and not always one can see the huge amount of work that was put into it…

I think that the following quotation from our testimonials’ letters will illustrates my idea:

The Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) is the only native parrot in Puerto Rico and it is an endangered species since 1967. Therefore, it was very important for the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) to preserve existing individuals and their habitat, as well as supervising recovery programs for this species.

Some causes for the reduction in population of the Puerto Rican Parrot are the following:
1. Loss of habitat due to massive deforestation on the island between the 19th and mid- 20th centuries.
2. Catastrophic natural events such as hurricanes that struck the island in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of 20th century.
3. Capturing of young ones for the pet market.
4. Illegal hunting.
5. Human disturbance of nursery grounds.
6. Predation, mainly by the red-tailed hawk, pearly-eyed thrasher, mongooses, and rats.

The Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program is an effort to conserve, protect and manage the wild and captive populations of this endemic parrot in order to down list the species from endangered to threatened, to establish an additional wild population and insuring that both groups are self-sustaining with an effective population size of 500 birds (5 year average) in each area.

We would like to share with you a letter received on December 20, 2011, from Mr. Ricardo Valentin-de la Rosa, the aviculturist for Vivaldi Aviary of the DNER  regarding his work for captive propagation program of the Puerto Rican Parrot.

Mr. Ricardo Valentin-de la Rosa writes to us:

“As an aviculturist I breed this species in captivity to produce birds that will be released to the wild, a few of them are retained in captivity to preserve the genetic
diversity of the species. Breeding this species in captivity is a real challenge.

There are several reasons for the difficulty of breeding this species, some of the most important are; a reduced gene pool, birds with highly idiosyncratic behaviors and the myriad ways in which captivity affect what are essentially wild birds.

One of the most critical aspects of breeding this species is the management of the
eggs. This is one of the most complex aspects of the operation. This is so because
not all eggs are created equal, some are the hope for an increased genetic
representation of an individual that has not previously bred, some are bound for the
field to help increase the wild population and some will be traded between the
aviaries to keep as diverse as possible the genetics of the different flocks. Also not
all birds are good brooders or good parents, which mean their eggs have to be
fostered to other pairs…”

and Mr. Ricardo Valentin-de la Rosa continues:

“A key piece of the egg management is the egg incubator.

The egg incubator can be both a boon and a bane. When they are working smoothly you hardly notice them, when they malfunction it can be disastrous. My experience has included a fair share of both of these experiences. When I started working with the Inca incubator I was pleasantly surprised that some of our most vexing problems simply were not an issue with this incubator. 

One problem we had was that all our previous incubators had a lot of pieces inside
the area where the eggs are located. If there was a need to disinfect this area it
involved removing and laboriously cleaning sometimes dozens of rollers, a belt,
trays, bags ect. With the Inca Incubator this can be done very quickly and with
minimal effort due to its simple interior structure.

Because the Inca Incubator runs on the same 120 volt range that local utilities use,
there is no need for a set up for a different voltage need. This is no small issue;
the aviary is located in a remote spot, in the middle of a tropical forest, in a place
with a high frequency of thunderstorms. In any given day voltage can fluctuate
wildly due to tree branches making contact with the wires, thunder hitting the wires
or wind damage to the system. All these fluctuations are hard on electrical
appliances, even well protected ones which in theory should be safe from these
things. Unfortunately at times the electrical fluctuations can defeat even the most
elaborate defenses and this is the reason most of our incubators have left us for the
great incubator room in the sky. The Inca Incubator which is connected to a
battery/surge protector with no intervening apparatus has survived everything the
weather has thrown at us..”.

“But the area where the Inca Incubator really shines is in humidity control.

In most locations the problem for bird breeders is low humidity. But this is not true in the Vivaldi Aviary which is located in the Rio Abajo forest. Here humidity in any given day, even in the height of the dry season, can fluctuate wildly from 40% to 100% in the course of hours or sometimes in minutes! Of course the incubator is set up in an air conditioned room that’s kept at 70° F and the air conditioning helps keeps the humidity relatively low. But all these measures can, and have failed as a result of the many momentary (and sometimes no so momentary) power outages that occur at random during the breeding season. Because in the Inca Incubator the humidity source is not coupled with the heating element, the humidity source can be removed from the incubator if needed. This means that humidity stays in the optimal 45% range even if the air conditioner barely pushes it into the 50-55% range.

This is important because it means I don’t have to put a dehumifier in the room to keep the humidity in the 45% optimal range for incubation of this species, this is one less piece of machinery to worry about!

Last but not least is that the Inca Incubator is surprisingly affordable when
compared with some other incubator models. This is significant when one has to
run an operation on a budget that demands that you keep a sharp eye on every
penny. I could buy several Inca Incubators with what I have spent in a single one
of the others.

To put my experience in a few simple words, I can asset that the Inca Incubator is
affordable, easy to operate, reliable and satisfies many of our particular needs”.

D.M.P. Engineering wishes to thank Jafet Vélez-Valentín, Luquillo Aviary Team Leader of the Puerto Rican Amazon Recovery Program and Ricardo Valentin-de la Rosa for their important roll in the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program and the professional and comprehensive review about the Inca Incubator. 

Back in the mid 80’s an unexpected guest landed in our front yard and eventually changed our life…
It was  a small yellow uncombed bird that discovered later as the unique Parisian Frill Canary (Serinus canaria). We understood immediately that the small creature looks for a new home , so we couldn’t turn him down…and even took care of a lady friend to keep him happy in his new place. After that we added another pair and another…and one day we found ourselves surrounding by a flock of singing Canaries…

As they say, opportunities are always there – we need only to identify them, so this was our chance to come back to our childhood love for animals…
No hard push needed to reveal the beautiful Finches and as the time went by, the birds’ size (and the options..) became bigger as our aviaries… that were occupied now with Parakeets and Parrots, mostly Australians.
At this point, David turned to be a passionate aviculturist and a breeder.

One thing was a riddle for him: how the hen parrot dare to think that parenting was not her “cup of seeds” and either ignores the eggs or “agree” that her male partner will break it…
So with nature in mind, he decided to combine his two passions – breeding and engineering –
to find a solution for this problem by creating an egg-incubator that he envisioned.

The rest, as they say, is History…..