GENERAL NEWS - Ostrich breeding in Denmark - the shape of success

The small village of Billund in Denmark is probably only known outside the country as the home of the LEGO toy factory and theme park. However, in Billund lives Hans Age Nielsen who, besides his job as an air pilot, is one of the most experienced Ostrich breeders in Denmark. Mr Nielsen was one of the pioneers of Ostrich breeding in the country and has established his own hatchery which houses his 12 Octagon 250 incubators which he uses as setters.

'We have got a number of commercial ostrich hatcheries in Denmark, but there is always a risk of contamination involved if mixing eggs from several individual farms. On top of that the Octagon 250 with its capacity of 12 eggs allows us to observe the demand of the individual egg, and in that way increase our hatchability,' Mr Nielsen says.

'Our experience with the Octagon 250 gives us a lot of confidence in its performance. My job as an air pilot keeps me away from my farm for several periods every month, and reliable equipment is therefore a must for me.'

'In fact we could have invested in equipment at lower cost, but when incubating ostrich eggs, you only need to increase the hatchability with 3-4 chicks/year to earn back the whole investment.'

It is estimated that approximately 4,000 ostrich will be processed in Denmark in 1998, and about 40% of these have been incubated in Brinsea Octagon 250 machines.

The design of the Octagon 100 and 250 were the result of going back to first principles and answering the question 'what is the ideal design for a medium sized incubator?'. The cylindrical cabinet with large area heaters allows the air to slowly spiral around the eggs as it is warmed by the heaters creating an even, controllable airflow - impossible in a square cabinet fitted with small, high temperature heaters.

The external automatic turning, common in principle to the whole Octagon incubator range, leaves the interior of the cabinet free from hard-to-clean mechanisms and can be programmed to give different numbers of turns per day to suit the particular species being bred. The egg handling is as flexible as possible ensuring that all species' eggs can be accommodated with minimal wastage of space.

The highly accurate proportional electronic temperature control is isolated from mains borne damage and the measurement of temperature is independent of the temperature control system (which is not the case with many expensive mid-sized models).

So whether incubating ostrich or partridge or macaw, the Octagon 100 or 250 are the obvious choice where high performance and maximum hatch rates are top priorities.

© Brinsea Products Inc 2006