1. ParroTech Issue #2, September-October 2006
Don’t want to incubate
Female parrots occasionally decide that motherhood is not their “cup
Professor Amos Ar, Head of Zool-
ogy Department, from Tel Aviv Uni-
versity wrote On May 2005:
of tea” so they are ignoring their eggs, neglecting or breaking them.
David Vishnia, a parrot breeder with many years of experience, was “David Vishnia’s innovative ideas are
determined to find a better solution for these poor eggs as follows:
After monitoring his parrots’ behav- to be an important factor in embryonic 1. In the incubators built by D.M.P.
ior and conducting numerous tests and development and hatching. Engineering, the heat is evenly and
experiments he decided to use his en- Therefore, the incubator design cre- constantly spread throughout
gineering skills to develop an incubator ates ideal humidity conditions for each the incubator, so one can give up the
that would overcome these “females’ ca- bird species “dry” thermometer and use only one
prices” by imitating the natural incubat- by opening or closing the water lid in thermometer - the “wet” one.
ing process as closely as possible. the transparent water container located In addition, Mr. Vishnia uses a very
For this mission, the crucial aspects inside the incubator. accurate Calibrate Thermometer, ± 0.1
of the incubation process were identi- To measure the humidity, David ºC, with a low heat capacity, which
fied and were implemented in the incu- Vishnia developed a wet & dry hygrom- achieves its thermal balance in a few
bator’s design and construction. eter especially for this incubator, which seconds.
For example, in order to simulate the is a very reliable form of humidity mea-
manner in which the brooding female surement (see letter in the frame). 2. Above the red temperature scale is
heats the eggs in nature, he developed From a parrot lover’s point of view, a blue scale showing pre-calculated
an especially large surfaced heating el- he wanted every breeder to feel like Standard International charts of rela-
ement with a center mounted fan and part of nature so he designed this In- tive humidity at various temperatures.
located it above the eggs (rather than cubator with large transparent doors for This saves time and effort for the
below them). monitoring egg development and chick user.
In professional literature, such ther-
mometers could be accurate ± 2%
relative humidity,
this is the same accuracy for digital
thermometers based on electric ca-
pacity.
While checking at the incubating
temperature range (35-39 ºC), I real-
ized that the temperature
reading at the calibrate scale in a “wet”
thermometer only, could be changed
in 1.5% ±.
For example, if the humidity scale
would calibrate for a temperature of
37 ºC,
For the breeders’ convenience he hatching. this, approximately, would be the ac-
added a temperature controller with So even if they don’t want to incu- curate reading around all incubating
clear digital display. bate… this unique incubator imitates temperature at the above range. At
In order to emulate the brooding the natural incubating process but- with the worst case, the deviation would be
mother’s way of rolling eggs, the eggs better hatching results. only 3.5% ±.
are positioned at the bottom of the in- Emulation of the natural heat, mois-
cubator and are ture and egg rolling conditions, com- This is a very high accuracy and it
Rolled periodically and automatically bined with an elegant, convenient, easy- gives optimized humidity adjustment
by an automatic egg turning system to to-use design creates a highly efficient in the incubator for ideal weight loss
create temperature changes vital to the incubator, suitable for every breeder, in the eggs and therefore optimum
Embryo development (see news item harnessing the natural incubating pro- hatching.”
on the other side of this page). cess for successful and productive breed-
The level of humidity was also found ing.
Page 1 • ParrotTech • Issue #2, September-October 2006 • www.dmp-engineering.com

2. Natural Breeding Improved
To be a parrot breeder is a very enrich- relevant and important: the fe- male R i n g Necks from the dryer areas.
ing feeling but gettting better results than laying the eggs on the nesting box floor, the In addition, the humidity in the nesting
natural breeding is a much more intensi- female rolling the eggs with her beak, and box is not constant and it varies during the
fied experience. Could we, the breeders, the female body position changing above day and according to environmental condi-
really make this difference? In order to the eggs. tions.
answer this question David Vishnia, the All these factors enable the tempera-
Inca Incubator’s developer, tested some ture changes inside the egg, and as a result Conclusion 2
common notions. - when the temperature increases, the fluid According to all that, it is very impor-
inside the egg expands and the air-cell tant to maintain an average humidity level
Temperature changes shrinks. and to follow the egg weight loss.
While the temperature is decreasing During the breeding seasons the breeder
The first consensus: in order to get bet- this fluid shrinks and creates a low pres- learns from his incubating experience what
ter hatching results the temperature should sure inside the egg, which causes oxygen to the suitable humidity level for his parrots
be very accurate. penetrate through the porous eggshell to is. The humidity percentages are not neces-
The best way to test this idea was to the blood strings attached to it, so that the sarily equal at every breeding farm.
measure the temperature during the incu- embryo could get this oxygen and develop If the breeder will pay attention to the
bating process in nature. in the best possible way. egg rolling, to the temperature range be-
For this matter, a Data Logger was hid- tween 35°C-39°C,
den inside an artificial egg and placed in an Humidity level and to the humidity level according to
Indian Ring Neck’s nesting box in his environmental conditions, as explained
a wild environment and also In Rosslea’s Another consensus between the breed- before, he should get better results than
and King Parrot’s nesting box in Vishnia’s ers: in order to get better hatching results natural breeding.
breeding farm. the humidity should be accurate and con-
stant all the time. Ben Hoffman of the
As done before, we must test the hu- Predatory Bird Centre
midity level during the natural incubating wrote on November 2005:
process.
According to well-known research, the “I was recently asked by Mark Brown
ideal loss of egg weight during the incuba- from the University Of KwaZulu-Na-
tion process is 15%± 3. tal, Pietermaritzberg Campus to evalu-
This loss of egg weight is affected by ate the Inca 100 incubator. I am the
The data logger inside the artifical eggs manager of the largest raptor breeding
two factors:
The Data Logger datum shows an 1. The Eggshell Thickness - food with facility in South Africa were I routinely
amazing incubating pattern in both places: high levels of Calcium will cause the egg- incubate a number of bird of prey eggs,
the temperature increased and decreased shell to be thicker, and an egg that was laid including a number of endangered spe-
between 35°C and 39°C during approxi- first- its eggshell would be thicker than the cies...
mately one and a half hour cycle. last egg that was laid. Eggs with a thicker
In addition, sensitive temperature sen- eggshell will lose less weight than eggs ...The Inca 100 is a small compact unit
sors were attached to some eggs to check with thinner eggshells. with a number of features that make it
the temperature differences between the 2. The Humidity Percentage - after the suitable for use by both the small and
upper part and the lower parts of the egg: egg is laid the breeder has no influence on large scale aviculturists.
while the environment temperature was the first factor (the eggshell thickness) but The robust PVC and glass construction
16°C, the upper part’s temperature was he could change the humidity percentage is very easy to clean.
40°C and at the lower part of the egg, the The egg turning mechanism is func-
temperature decreased to 32 °C. Thinking tional, reliable and simple to operate.
of it, one must remember that the brooding The same goes for the humidity system
female body temperature is between 41°C (It has a cleaver wet and dry thermom-
and 42 °C eter attachment)...
The deviations in the graph, in which
the temperature drops to 30°C, happened …Overall the Inca performed well
when the brooding female went out to eat. and I had the confidence in the unit to
With the same Data Logger, it was pos- incubate Umbrella Cockatoo, Lanner
sible to identify pairs that were not sitting Falcon as well as Pygmy Falcon eggs
on the eggs properly: in this case, the graph to affect the loss of the egg weight. from fresh laid to hatch. I have no hes-
showed a different incubating pattern so Parrots from different regions need dif- itation in recommending the Inca 100
obviously the chicks did not hatch. ferent humidity percentages: the Ama- incubator as a reliable, versatile and ro-
zons, the Macaws, or the Grey Africans bust machine for both the amateur and
Conclusion 1 from the Rain Forests need higher humid- professional breeder. “
Inside the nesting box few factors are ity than the Cockatoos, the Rosellas, or the
Page 2 • ParrotTech • Issue #2, September-October 2006 • www.dmp-engineering.com