US 4,398,499 AGranted

Poultry incubation and hatching tray

OwnerJohn R. Blakelyinventor

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Abstract

A tray adapted to contain poultry eggs during both the incubation and hatching thereof, in a continuous operation not requiring removal or handling of the eggs between incubation and hatching, consisting of a tray body of sufficient depth to contain hatched chicks, its floor being divided into compartments each of a size to contain a single egg, loosely, lying on its side, said trays being adapted to be stacked to any desired height, and each tray having a removable cover capable of supporting each egg in a position with its major axis substantially vertical when the tray is inverted. Each egg is movable from its vertical-axis position, which is the incubation position in which development of the embryo occurs, to its horizontal-axis position, in which hatching occurs as the chick pecks its way out of the shell, by simply inverting the stack of trays.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A poultry incubation and hatching tray adapted to be tiltably inverted from a horizontal incubation position to a horizontal hatching position, and to be tilted, alternately in opposite directions from horizontal when in its incubation position, and to be stacked with other identical trays, said tray comprising:

a. a body member having, when in its hatching position, a horizontal floor and upstanding side and end walls,
b. a cover member releasably joined to said body member and having a wall parallel to but spaced apart from the floor of said body member, and
c. egg support members formed by special configurations of said body member and cover to constitute a series of individual compartments each operable to contain a single poultry egg, each of said compartments being configurated, when the tray is in its incubation position, to maintain its associated egg in a position with its axis substantially vertical, and substantially stationary relative to said tray, and when the tray is inverted to its hatching position, to allow said egg to move by gravity to a position lying on its side on said floor, with a degree of free rolling movement on said floor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.