I see I need to give a little more information.
First there are no hens involved when using an incubator, just fertile eggs. If one wished to rely on the hens to decide to go broody, you might only get one or two hatches a year. Also, a hen is limited to just how many eggs she can cover and hatch. The incubator is designed so that I can set and hatch eggs when I want them without relieing on the hen to do the work. Currently, Our large model incubator can hold 300 eggs in the turners and a additional 100 in the hatching tray at any given time. Way more than one, two, or even a dozen hens can hope to try to hatch at one time. Smaller models only hold 50 and there are models that only hold one egg at a time. There are dozens of incubator companies out there selling similar to what we sell. Some incubators holding thousands of eggs at a time. These are mostly for commercial growers. We are targeting the backyard chicken community, the get back to nature crowd. To successfully hatch eggs, even with a hen doing all the work, you have to have a rooster. Many large communities no longer allow roosters because of the crowing. For this reason, one must find fertile eggs and incubate them themselves, which is why the demand for small, hobbiest size incubators. Growing Backyard chickens is the fastest growing hobby in the US right now.
As for the electronics, yes I can purchase a electronic thermostat from one of the other incubator companies. The cost is around $80 before shipping and Taxes, but then our incubators would be nothing more than a copy of all the other incubators on the market, except for a fancy cabinet. The 120V, 400W thermostat is the specs given for one of their Thermostats. The purpose of maintaining a narrow on/off cycle is to prevent getting the eggs to hot or allowing to get to cold. Temperature is very important in incubation times. A hen will hatch eggs in 21 days, by not regulating temps you can hatch out to early as in 18 days, or late as long as 24 days. This results in deformed chicks. The heating element is nothing more than one of those coilspring looking heating elements found in common space heaters, I have even seen a lightbulb used for a heat source. Currently ours cycles every 3.5 minutes and stays on for only 17 seconds. The fan is continuous and circulates air for even temps. A digital thermometer/hygometer from Acurite ($12 from any hardware store) is used to monitor temps and humity. Some use a Wetbulb hygometer. Nothing fancy. I have even seen hot waterheater thermostats used to regulate temps.We use colored LED lights to tell when everything is on. Now the problem with this type of setup is that the digital thermometer/hygometer has to be placed inside the cabinet, next to the eggs for accurate readings. This necessitates opening up the cabinet to read and a resulting loss in heat as well as humity. What I am wanting is a digital readout display I can mount on the outside of the cabinet connected by wire to probes or sensors, that can be placed inside the cabinet. A digital programmable thermostat, that can also be mounted on the exterior. And something that is powered by a normal 120v outlet found in every home. Most of the home models for furnaces are 24vDc and would require inverters to operate. And since the thermostat control needs to be mounted outside the heated area, either a sensor probe, remote wireless transmitter, or something, would be needed to read inside temps.
I hope someone here can make sense of what I am describing and wanting to achieve. Of course cost is going to be a big consideration, but when one factors in a ready made electronic thermostat and a seperate digital thermoter/hygometer, we are already looking at around $100, plus its two seperate units. I need and all in one unit for less than $100, plug and play. How many I will need is only guessable, but considering the demand, and the fact these features are only available on the very high end machine, I can see a market of people wanting to upgrade their current setups.
Currently we are custom building these incubators one at a time in our garages.. They where posted for sale on an internet forum (similar to this one) this week and we recieved 4 orders the first day. Whether this will turn into a much bigger business is yet to be determined, many factors to consider. Maybe we will only need one or two thermostat units, or could be hundreds. Time will tell. Build a better mouse trap and they will come.
By the way, since this is only my second post, my replys are being moderated resulting in delays to my posting and recieveing replies. Forgive me if it seems I am slow replying to your answers.
Bill