Name Change, My First Experience with Farm Innovators Bator

[blucoondawg]

I picked up a incubator yesterday, people on here seem to have mixed reviews on it, it is the Farm innovator forced air one from Fleet Farm, it was on sale so I figured I would give it a shot, working on getting it set up now to see if it will hold temp, still have to run to walmart and pick up a thermometer, hydrometer. hopefully will be able to start a hatch tonight, if the incubator turns out to be subpar I will probably utilize its components and pick up some new parts and build my own rig.

Since I have seen some negative remarks on this particular bator on this forum I decided I would post my results on the forum. I will start by saying that at first glance I was not impressed with the unit simply because the built in thermometer on the lid was way off at room temperature, however once heat was turned on and another thermometer set inside the unit I have found the built in thermometer actually does read correct once warmed to the 99 to 100 degree temps, I will use this thermometer as a reference while confirming against the other thermometer throughout my use. I have not added a second hydrometer yet so I can not verify the accuracy of the built in gauge.

So far I have heated up the bator for a few hours and it is having no trouble holding a steady temp. I will leave it go a little further and then throw in some eggs. This will be my first try and I don't plan on incubating at full capacity as I don't want to deal with that many chicks this time of year if the hatch goes well.

I will update this thread throughout my hatch with any "bad" points I find with this bator in my experience. So far I feel it is working as it should.

 

[blucoondawg]

I put 21 fresh eggs in the bator on the evening of Feb 5th, so far everything seems to be working as designed, egg turner is functioning and the temp is holding pretty steady, I do notice maybe a 1 and a half degrees fluctuation throughout the day but right now I am attributing that to the fact that it does get a little sun during mid day, I am going to cover the windows with heavy drapes to eliminate that until hatch time. I also don't seem to have trouble maintain humidity, so far I am pleased with the function of this incubator, now to wait and see if I can hatch something, this is my first time.

 

[Chickens R Us]

My daughter bought this incubator for me last year. I found that both the thermometer and hygrometer were off by a couple of degrees and it took a couple of days to get the temp just right but that could be my inexperience. It was my first time hatching. I put 11 eggs in it. 9 hatched, 1 quitter and 1 was not fertile. For the money I personally think it is a good incubator. I will be hatching again this spring.

 

[blucoondawg]

I am at day 18 now, the incubator has functioned as it should for the whole process thus far, with the exception of the built in thermometer and hygrometer which I already mentioned is off. Sadly most of my eggs are junk, a couple quitters and many unfertilized, these eggs were collected toward the tail end of one of these polar vortex periods and I don't heat my coop so I don't think the breeding has been the most trustworthy with this batch, I do have a couple eggs that still look promising so I will continue to incubate them then start another batch when these are done.

I am going to do a couple things different, for one thing I am going to run a full batch of eggs this time rather than half, I believe this will alleviate the small temp fluctuation I experienced by having more thermal mass in the incubator, if I can figure out a reliable way to add even more mass in the form of water bottles or such I will do that as well. Also I am going to buy a better thermometer, I am now using the cheap glass one that came with the incubator which I had to calibrate myself so I don't know how close I actually got it until I have a more trustworthy one to compare with.

Overall I am recommending this incubator to anyone who wants a Styrofoam incubator to start out with or for small hatches. I have read bad reviews on this site for this incubator about it's inability to hold temperature reliably and I do not have that problem with mine.

 

[iamfivewire]

we just purchased the same product saturday - we have got the temp set pretty good - may set eggs in a couple days from now - working on getting the humidity set first & monitoring the levels

 

[blucoondawg]

My next batch I am not adding water just going to monitor the air cell. The more I read the more I think a dryer hatch may produce a better result

 

[A roo or two]

I have this same incubator. I am on day 16. I set 37 eggs, 2 clears, 1 early quitter and two that quit approximately day 8 and day 12. The remaining 32 so far look good, as far as I can tell anyway, this is my first hatch so it is all a learning experience. I have had great luck with my incubator as well. With temp and humidity. My hubby purchased the IncuThermTM Digital Thermometer Hygrometer. Mine fluctuates about 0.5 a degree throughout the day, between 99.3 and 99.7 and my humidity between 27 and 35, the higher counts were when I had to add "drips" of water because I felt I wouldn't make it through the night without going below 25. In the last 3 or 4 days I haven't had to add any water at all and stay between 32 and 35 just from the humidity the eggs put out.

I am doing the dry incubation method talked about on here. Being in a humid state it works well for me because if I added loads of water my chicks would definitely be having an issue.

Good luck on your upcoming hatch

 

[iamfivewire]

Just set 21 eggs @6pm - hopefully some will hatch

 

[A roo or two]

Good luck

 

[blucoondawg]

Well I am back at it, just set the whole incubator full, I have had it running for 5 days before setting, I added 8 Ziploc baggies partially filled with water around the outer perimeter of the bottom tray under the wire floor for thermal mass, and I picked up a thermometer I trust to be accurate, I think that was my problem last time, when comparing with the cheapo thermometer which came with the incubator I see the actual temp is much cooler than the cheapo shows. I believe the thermal mass in addition to running a full batch of eggs this time will make the temp run much more steadily.
I took the time to candle all the eggs and make sure there are no cracks and fairly decent shell composition. Also my first run ran many clear eggs, now my eggs pretty much all been fertile when cooking with them, I think the warmer weather has hopefully helped. I am optimistic about this batch, I am not going to ad water unless my humidity drops down into the 25 percent range, I want to shoot for mid 30s I think.