Recycled automatic egg incubator sparks interest and learning at Perseverance secondary |18 February 2022

Mr Kachingwe, the mastermind behind the recycled egg incubator

John Kachingwe, an agriculture teacher at Perseverance secondary school, has sparked interest in an eco-school project which he collaborated with other teachers to incubate eggs.

The project started in November 2021 and ended in January this year.

The agriculture teacher, in collaboration with the design and technology teacher, Noah Chilinda and construction teacher, Wilfred Charlette, used recycled materials to create an automatic egg incubator.

Mr Kachingwe said that they used materials which people throw in our environment almost every day such as wooden pallets, plywood, metal bars, etc. 

He explained that the automatic egg incubator simply simulates poultry egg hatching and that different eggs hatch at different times.

For instance, a chicken egg will take 21 days to hatch while a duck egg will take about 28 days.

He said that the incubator is automatic meaning that it turns the eggs automatically and it operates with less human involvement. Most of all it is environmentally friendly and energy saving.

The incubator has a capacity of 176 eggs. It can accommodate any egg be it chicken, duck and even bird eggs.

Currently, there are 25 eggs under incubation, 16 of which are chicken while 9 are duck.

Mr Kachingwe said that the eggs will hatch in the first and second week of March. 

With tremendous involvement from the kids, Mr Kachingwe emphasised that the parents also have been very supportive with the egg incubation project as they have provided eggs for trials.

The agriculture teacher added that they are also very grateful for a donation that they received from FEROX FEED, whereby they received vouchers to collect 5kg bags of starter feed from its warehouse.

The motivation behind the project was seeing the extent to which people throw away domestic and industrial equipment and materials.

He added that it is so overwhelming that it motivated him to make something from these materials which could solve a problem in the community.

Another reason was also the shortage of day old chicks in Seychelles which motivated him to create the incubator.

The incubator so far as a trial has successfully incubated five chicks from seven eggs in total.

Mr Kachingwe said this signifies that the incubator is 100% okay.

In addition to being sustainable, the incubator will benefit the school as a source of income by hatching eggs for the community.

“This has produced a fun, sustainable learning environment. It stimulates interest and desire to learn among the students. It increases understanding. Lastly, it facilitates teaching of abstract concepts,” Mr Kachingwe said.

Marla Simeon