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Natalie Ashton incubates chickens, continuing a fascinating professional ride.
Before there was an Electric Iris and an out-of-nowhere Gauntlet victory, there was political science at Middle Tennessee State University, a housekeeping-to-general-manager gig at Hampton Inns, membership and bookkeeping responsibilities at the Salem Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, and accounting with an accounting firm and then Center in the Square.
Natalie Ashton, who is only 35, jammed a lot of experimentation into her professional life before landing on her personal bliss: hatching chickens efficiently.
This tall, pleasant mother of two small boys (Asa, 3, and Jack, 5) and wife of Ben seems to thrive amid apparent chaos, a household buzzing with activity and including two dogs and two cats along with a passel of chickens she has raised since incubating them. Her brother is a live-in, serving as a domestic au pair. Signs of her business, Electric Iris, dot the house, some boxed, some set up for immediate use.
This newest interest recently presented Ashton with a tie for the noteworthy Gauntlet’s first place award ($12,000 in cash, $18,000 in business goods and services) with a new Martinsville business. The Gauntlet, of course, is a business competition sponsored by the Advancement Foundation that has gained fame in the region in recent years. Dozens of start-ups compete for the prizes and the attention that often leads to surges in the business plan. A win is not only prestigious, but it presents a significant opportunity for startups with a smashing idea.
Ashton’s idea is to improve the incubation of bird eggs, mostly those of a wide variety of chickens and quail for the region’s farmers, both homesteaders and hobbyists. She manufactures parts from plant-based bioplastic filament for incubators that allow safe and quick hatch rates. “Hens are not the best mothers,” she says, a big-tooth smile creeping across her face. “They subscribe to the philosophy of ‘survival of the fittest,’” and that “pecking order” often leads to “harm to the young chicks.”
Chickens and turkeys—among other dinner-table birds—have been artificially incubated since the 1890s, she says, but new technology, some of which she is developing, is improving those rates of incubation and staying alive to produce eggs, in a variety of colors. “Leghorns produce the bright whites, but most chickens produce brown or colored eggs,” she says. Easter chickens lay a variety of colors, hence the name.
Carefully incubated eggs hatch in 18-21 days and “the incubator optimizes production of chickens,” Ashton says. The incubators don’t work well with turkeys or geese—whose eggs are large—and aren’t the best method for fast-growing quail. Chickens have been developed over the years as egg-laying factories, says Ashton, but more eggs laid has often meant fewer hatched. Hence the artificial incubators on which “more breeds [including ‘designer chickens’] are reliant for sustainability.”
This all came about because of COVID. She was looking for a quarantine skill and bought a 3D printer. That was a “new hobby” that “I had to figure out how to work.” Ashton is one of those always-busy fortunates who seems to be able to figure out anything she’s interested in. She concentrated on making and improving parts for small incubators (she also makes Star Wars toys for her kids) on the printer. A year ago, she sold her first egg-related parts and discovered “it can be a living and it is already close.”
Her customers include war veterans, the agricultural community within and outside the U.S., mothers “and people involved in animal husbandry looking for the best version of a chicken.” Those customers are not typically urban dwellers. Her first hint of success came at a competition called Quailcon, where she was something of a star. She got serious.
Printers cost about $500 each and she created improvements as soon as she learned how they work. The incubators require controlled heat and humidity, and the eggs must be rotated regularly, or they will stick to the inner membrane and kill the chicks. She “developed relationships with farmers who helped me understand what they needed.”
In her first year of part-time business (she still has the day job at Center in the Square), she sold $40,000 in parts. During a recent month, she earned $8,300. Now her goal is “to create a smart incubator, one that can be monitored from your phone.” She has also begun to use hemp filament along with the other plant-based filament that helps create the plastic parts.
Judging from Ashton’s wildly-varied and creative background, we’re only seeing the beginning of her fascinating destiny.
The story above is from our September/October 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!
