Built for Australian Conditions

Australia presents very different conditions for artificial incubation.

An incubator may be operating through a cold southern winter, in the dry inland, in tropical humidity, or in a shed where the daytime temperature can rise above the required incubating temperature.

Greatlander incubators are designed with these conditions in mind.

Airflow designed for the machine

Air movement within an incubator affects temperature, humidity, evaporation from the eggs and the removal of metabolic heat.

For this reason, Greatlander does not use one airflow arrangement across its incubator ranges.

Top Hatch cabinet incubators use quadraxial air mixing. Multiple fans and return paths circulate and remix the cabinet air, with controlled temperature stratification through the egg chamber.

Offspring incubators use a circular airflow system. The fan and shaped enclosure work together to carry the air around the incubator and return it through the centre, rather than simply blowing air onto the eggs.

e-Clucky incubators use a double-roof and edge-return system. Air is distributed across the upper chamber and returned around the perimeter, helping to circulate it throughout the egg space.

Each system was developed and tested for the size and arrangement of the incubator in which it is used.

When the Australian summer takes over

Heating an incubator is relatively straightforward while the surrounding air remains cooler than the required incubating temperature.

The more difficult problem occurs when the room itself becomes too hot.

Greatlander Top Hatch cabinet incubators incorporate active cooling. When conditions inside the cabinet exceed the selected limits, the incubator can actively remove excess heat rather than relying only on the temperature of the surrounding room.

This is also important later in incubation, when hundreds of developing embryos are producing metabolic heat of their own.

Settings for where the machine will work

Australia does not have one incubation climate.

Location, season, species and intended use are considered when a Greatlander incubator is prepared for its first owner. Where appropriate, the operating values are selected accordingly and recorded on the individual machine's settings sheet.

Those settings and calibration values remain with the permanent workshop record for that machine.

Australian conditions are part of the design, not something added afterwards.