Heritage or Heriloom Wooden Incubators

[Robert Blosl]

We are looking for old rare strains of Poultry today and in the past two months we located a strain of Barred Rock Large Fowl that is over 100 years old a stain of West Coast Rhode Island Reds that are about 60 years old and a strain of Light Brahmas that are at least 40 years old. In our picking of old strains of chickens we do find old fashion poultry items such as feeders, nest, books and Incubators.

One of the old incubators is the woodend ones by Lehy. Do many of you out there who read this thread have these old thrity to fourty year old incubators?

Do any of you know where some are for sale for the person who wants to have one of these great old incabtors?

The reason these incubators are so good is the Red Wood that they where made out of and their ability to hold and give humidity.

When you have a good fan, heating element and thermostate you got one hatching machine.

Lets hope we get some good feed back on this thread. We have instructions on how to uset these machines and a source to buy used and new parts. bob

 

[Katy]

A friend gave me this several years ago. It says Buckeye Clipper on it and the workings of it are long gone. I posted pictures of it on here once before trying to find out how old it might be. It's about 6' tall and 4' wide.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Wow Katy that is the oldest incubator I seen. 1947 thats old as me. What a find.

Its possable 2-47 means feb 1947

 

[Katy]

So you think it's from 1947? Is that what the 47 on the door indicates?

 

[Ivywoods]

I don't know anything about them, but those are some great looking old incubators. They remind me so much of the old wooden "ice boxes" people had before electric refrigerators. What a neat old find.

 

[rancher hicks]

Here's a pic of an incu from 1907 according to the ad I found on line. It was heated with a lamp of some sort. I didn't have the lamp but had all the rest. The two brooders are ealy Sears Roebuck. The incu would have been great for someone who was living off the grid. I just don't have the time to play with it. I use a Genesis 1588. On the other hand it would be great to avoid power outages too. It looked to me that you'd have to be skilled to use it. The brooders needed cleaning up and rewireing. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have given them a shot since I have eggs in the incu. But I also figured chicks grow so fast, they'd out grow the brooders. Unless there is something I don't know about them.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Wow you got some old brooders. When I was a kid in the 1950s and 60s. they had one of these brooders on the floor with a little bit of sand or saw dust for litter, then they had the brooder hanging from the cealing or had legs under it then the water and feeders and hundred of little chicks running around going in and going out. The smell of young chicks and the feed I will never forget. It was a good smell kind of a natural nature kind of smell.

This thread maybe should be for old antique poutlry stuff and equipemnt. Any of you watch Pickers on the History Channel. They find old stuff like this all the time. Then if they have nuts like me that want to collect it they put us on thier list. The Red Wood on this incubator is something and it looks alot like the old Ice boxes they used in the old days. Thanks for the pictures. bob

 

[CityChicker]

I think a lot of BYC'ers have these old machines. I do not have one currently, but would love to some day have a Humidaire or Petersime again (or Leahy too, LOL). There is just nothing like the look and function of these beautiful machines. I see them for sale fairly regularly, but just haven't found anything in the last couple years that is close enough to pick up or able to be shipped reasonably. I am really holding out for one of the few models I have in mind.

I know a few people here have gotten machines from Sunny Creek, but I personally have never dealt with them. Katy- When I first saw your pictures I instantly thought the "2-47" was the date too. Of course, it may or may not be, but I wouldn't be surprised. That machine is typical for the type and size of machine I used to see a lot in barns growing up in central Kansas. I worked for a veterinarian for many years and was always surprised when we would go out to client's houses how many had these big old time machines (usually not even being used) built into their barns.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I have a kerosene fired Buckeye from the 30's

 

[Katy]

Quote:
You may have seen this one since I'm in central Kansas. The friend who gave it to me lives on the farm that's been in his family for generations as do we. He was cleaning out a shed that he was tearing down and knowing how I am with my chickens he called and said he had an old incubator that he was junking unless I wanted it. I said sure I'll take it....I was thinking along the lines of something much smaller and then he drove in with this in the back of his pickup!! It weighs a ton and we had to use the bale forks to get it lifted and moved into the barn.