Chicken Egg Incubator Recommendation

CarolynRenee · #1 01/25/11, 11:44 AM

I'm finally going to bite the bullet and buy an incubator this year.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to which one I should get & what you may have & like / dislike about it. I'm not going to be incubating more than 25 or so chicken eggs at a time.

Thanks!

(also cross-posting on the chicken forum)

Wisconsin Ann · #2 01/25/11, 01:26 PM

my 2cents worth:

Hovabator. With a turner. You can put your own computer fan in it for a couple of dollars, whereas the bator WITH a fan is almost double the money (running around $89 here)

I've never had trouble with the two Hovabators we've had. Just put it in a draft free spot, get it regulated, and put in the eggs.

We've had a Little Giant, returned for a replacement, and had the same problems with the new computer regulator. After reading reviews, I found we weren't alone in the problem

The Hovabator (and little giant) will let you put 42?43? in at a time, and it is easier to regulate the temp if it's full. You can just put non-fertile eggs in to take up the space if necessary. Otherwise, I've found it's best to put the eggs around the outside equally instead of directly under the fan and clustered.

two_barking_dogs · #3 01/25/11, 03:15 PM

I have a couple of the GQF cabinet Incubators. One can reasonably do 50 to 75 eggs in each. They are repairable if necessary and should last a lifetime. A little pricey at $250+ used but are worth it.

What ever you buy plan on needing more space for eggs in the future

Ohiogal · #4 01/25/11, 03:37 PM

I've had the Hovabator, with egg turner. The first year I got one, the egg turner died and it cost me another $50 for new turner. I also had trouble regulating the humidity and temps. Even after repeated hatchings, my hatch rate was at best 50% with home produced eggs.
I then bought a Brinsea, with the humidity module. Its the Octagon-20, pricey but well worth the price as you have to figure in lost revenue and birds for cheaper models - not to mention the time to manage it.
I use the Hovabator now without the egg turner to do the drying out process of the chicks that hatch. That works really well.
If I were to do it again, I'd just get the Brinsea. Get the better product if you can afford it and be thankful it removes the human error and atmospheric issues that the cheaper models do.

brosil · #5 01/26/11, 08:15 AM

I have a Hovabator and have never been able to hold a stable temperature. I'll happily sell it for $50 and throw in the humidity checker if I can find it. I had good results from the cheap foam plastic incubator that I bought at the farm store.

SilverFlame819 · #6 01/26/11, 06:21 PM

If you go with Hova or LG, you should have a room that holds REALLY stable temps/humidity to put it in, as the bator itself will NOT do a fabulous job at it. I used to run 6 LG's at a time - 4 for incubating and 2 as hatchers, and had decent success, but they were in a basement with the door closed and the humidity and temps were checked daily, with no other traffic through the room other than myself when I did my checks... They are notoriously hard to hatch babies from. I've never known anyone to get perfect hatches in them (not even myself, not even using my own non-shipped eggs)...

65284 · #7 01/26/11, 08:50 PM

If you can find one of the old redwood incubators like those made by Leahy Mfg Co. and marketed by Monkey Ward, Sears and lots of other places, upgrade to an electronic controls and you will have as good an incubator as you could wish for.

There are still a lot of them around, I was given one just for moving it out of a shed. Watch/advertise for one in your local Craigs list, ad finder, shopper etc.

CarolynRenee · #8 01/26/11, 09:51 PM

I guess that's my real problem with the incubators. The temps in the house fluctuate a lot (we heat with wood). I didn't think it would be THAT much trouble for an incubator to keep up with the changing temps.

cc-rider · #9 01/26/11, 09:58 PM

I second Brosil. I have a cheap foam one from TSC and it worked fine for me. Had to turn the eggs by hand, but no biggie. Under $25, if I remember right.

hotzcatz · #10 01/27/11, 02:23 AM

We had a Brinsea Octogon with the rocking cradle and it was a lovely thing. Great hatch rates and it was easy. It was also borrowed, so we had to give it back after several hatchings.

Since then we've been using two of those square foam hatchers, one as an incubator and one as a hatcher. I line the square foam one with a plastic bag, remove the lids of cardboard egg cartons, soak them in water, put the eggs in them, then put them in the incubator. I turn the whole incubator by putting a triangular block of wood under one side. It gets turned first thing in the morning, several times during the day and the last thing at night and in the middle of the night if I get up for any reason. I also put a towel over it to keep the temperatures even. We've had okay hatch rates with the foam incubators but not as good as the Brinsea.

Topaz Farm · #11 01/27/11, 06:18 AM

A nice fat broody hen.

oregon woodsmok · #12 01/27/11, 04:19 PM

Jeffers livestock catalog has one of the Styrofoam ones for $38. If you've never hatched eggs before that's a decent way to start. See if you like it without a huge investment.

They also sell the thermostats and switches separately, so you can build your own, but by the time you buy the components, the Styrofoam one doesn't cost any more, and someone else has done the work for you.

I had one of those 20 years ago and it worked fine, but there is no way to know if it is still the same product.