Experimental Study on Decreasing the Electricity Cost of Incubating Chickens in Guatemala

The Barbara Ford Peacebuilding Center, a non-profit, non-governmental organization in Guatemala, runs an entrepreneurship project that seeks to promote sustainable economic growth and employment in the Santa Cruz del Quiche area of Guatemala. Local women are trained to raise chickens for food and profit. The women use heat lamps to maintain warm conditions for the young chicks. However, paying the high electricity cost requires a substantial amount of their revenue. To overcome this problem, experiments were conducted to find a solution that can maintain the warm temperature while decreasing electricity consumption. Two different types of solutions are proposed: improvements to the existing chicken coops and a newly designed chicken coop. For the first improvement, a water pump system and insulation additions are discussed. For the new design of the chicken coop, diagrams and reasons for the design choices are outlined and explained.