Many rural and semi-urban areas are not connected to the national electricity grid, thus hampering power-based agricultural activities. The aim was to find a stable alternative to the erratic power supply and high maintenance cost of generating plants for rapid agricultural development in tropical countries. Three hundred and eighty-eight (388) Arbor acre breeder eggs were hatched for chicks, to compare the effect of incubator power-source and egg weight on hatching traits. The CRD in a 2×2 factorial treatment - power source by egg weight - was employed. Records collected were number of eggs set, fertile eggs set, hatchability on eggs set, hatchability on fertile eggs, viable chicks on fertile eggs, dead in shell on fertile eggs and reject chicks on fertile eggs. These were ® analysed with SAS version 8 (2008) software, using General Linear Model for the analysis of variance and Duncan Multiple Range Test ( α=0.05 ) for mean separation. Medium-sized eggs by solar powered incubator produced the highest hatchability of eggs set (HES), hatchability of fertile eggs (FES) and least dead-in-shell chicks on fertile eggs (DSE) set (73.6, 91.7 and 8.15, %, p <0.05). Solar powered incubator independently improved HES, FES, and reduced DSE set (72.4, 87.5 and 12.3, %, p <0.05) than the National electricity grid powered incubator (p <0.05) of Arbor acre breeder eggs. The higher hatching performance of solar powered incubator could be due to its better stability, and this could impact hatchery business and efficiency greatly in terms of turn-over, profitability and rural poultry development.
Jesuyon et al. (Wed,) studied this question.