Chick Bator Egg Incubator - 9108

What is the point of buying an incubator that doesn't even regulate the temperature? It is a low cost but low quality solution.... I hatched one chick with it (partridge). It works, but it's worth the money to buy a good one..

So this was my first incubator, got it when I was 10 for my birthday along with 6 shipped RIR eggs. 3 went into a homemade incubator my 10 yr old self made, 3 went in this. Out of all the eggs, only one hatched and it was in this incubator, so it CAN work, though honestly it was a miracle that anything came of it, but it worked and I got 8 yrs with the best prize winning roo a girl could ask for.

I own two of these little "dinky 'bators." We purchased them years ago when the kids were wanting to incubate some chicks for a 4H unit.

The beauty of them is that they are inexpensive, small, easy to use, and accommodate very small hatches...no more than 3 regular chicken eggs fit in one incubator. So if you are not needing to set 24 to 48 eggs, you can do a small clutch. We bought 2 so that we could set 6 regular size chicken eggs.

These incubators are completely manual control, so it is a bit time intensive as you do have to fiddle a bit to keep the temperature accurate, and of course remember to turn eggs regularly...but if you take time to fiddle with it BEFORE you add eggs you want to hatch, using toss out eggs, it is possible to get the hang of it such that I was able to keep temps pretty accurately.

There is no humidity gauge, so you won't know humidity with any degree of certainty, but they are made to keep water in one leg, and kept at the proper temp it seems to keep good humidity. Please note: This unit is designed for indoor use at normal home ambient temperature in order to function properly. If your room fluctuates a lot, then this incubator will reflect that and be hard to keep in proper range.

On the one full brood we attempted, I was able to develop eggs and hatch a chick...1 out of 6....BUT 4 of the others met with an accident when a child knocked over the incubators and 4 of the eggs fell onto the floor splatting...so I have skewed results. Of the 2 left, both developed right up to hatch, but only 1 chick hatched.

I use broody hens to do my hatching/brooding, but I like to keep these incubators around for several useful purposes.

They are good to use to start eggs when I have expensive shipped eggs so that I can maximize my chances...I put 6 under my bantam broody and then 6 in these incubators...check on day 5, place the best under the broody, and then again on day 10 to again place the best under the broody. The eggs left in the incubators are my "maybes" of which none of those left have hatched...so again skewing my hatch rate...but I would not expect anything above a 50% hatch rate with these if used for the full term. (I have had a number of my day 10 switch overs hatch under the broody that were started or kept going in the incubator).

I think their best use is that they are excellent as an emergency ICU unit for a chick that is in trouble after hatching from my broodies. For that it works swimmingly well. I've used them twice for 1 chilled chick (fell out of the nest after hatching and gasping its last breath with hypothermia) and 1 assisted hatch chick with an open naval and mild omphalitis.

The incubator is small, so you can only keep a freshly hatched chick in it for a few hours until they dry out, sleep it off, and want to move around....or a sick chick on the mend until they are up and moving again.

So while I wouldn't expect to use it to keep a solid hatching program going, it does have use for those who desire small educational hatching or an extension for developing shipped eggs with broodies or as a chick ICU.

Lady of McCamley

It's a light bulb in a plastic container. That's it. There's no temp adjustment, making it almost impossible to get that 99-100 range we need. Now I use it to grow seedlings, which I admit, is very good at!

I used this incubator a few years ago after being given it by a friend. It was my first time incubating bantam chicken eggs, so I didn't start out with very high expectations. In the end, 2 chicks ended up hatching, giving me a little less than 50% hatch rate of fertile eggs.

I enjoyed the incubation, but this incubator does have a lot of flaws. The temperature is controlled by maneuvering aluminum foil around a small light bulb so that the heat reflects. This can keep the temperature high enough, but it is prone to fluctuations in temperature as external conditions change. Sometimes, the temperature in my incubator dropped, and other times it sharply spiked before I got it under control. Needless to say, it took some close monitoring to not freeze or cook the eggs.

Another disadvantage is the lack of humidity control. To change humidity levels, you fill the base of the incubator with water or suck some away (in my case, with an eye dropper). The incubator did a good job staying moist enough. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to check the humidity, since the incubator is rather small to fit a hygrometer in. Opening the lid to insert a hygrometer and then take it out cools the incubator and creates a risk of jarring the eggs or aluminum foil. Still, the incubator maintained adequate levels of moisture during most of my incubation.

One other slight flaw in the incubator is that it has no automatic egg turner. You have to hand turn the eggs 3-5 times daily, which runs the risk of accidentally messing up the temperature settings and humidity.

A last factor is the incubator's small size. That makes it great for a classroom or small-scale hatcher, but does limit the amount of eggs you can set. Since the incubator isn't the most reliable in terms of temperature and humidity, few eggs set means less chance of some hatching if something goes wrong.

Overall, I think the incubator performed as well as is possible given its design. Managing the temperature was time-intensive, but apparently didn't harm the chicks that hatch. Both chicks that hatched grew into fine, healthy birds with no deformities or other problems.

I've used this incubator once. I set seven eggs, four of which were fertile. Two eggs hatched, so out of fertile eggs, I had a 50% hatch rate. The temperature was hard to regulate, but I managed to keep it from boiling or freezing the eggs. It had a tendency to rise too high in temperature. It was relatively easy to keep the humidity correct, but there is so little room in the incubator that I couldn't keep a hygrometer in it all the time. Also, you have to turn the eggs manually.

Despite the problems, the chicks that did hatch hatched fine with no problems. Overall, its a cheap incubator that isn't really made for precision hatching, but can be workable with enough time spent checking it, turning eggs, etc.

I have used it about 5 or 6 times love it the hatch rate is only about 20% though
great for begginers with time on there hands so far i have only hatched one and it died about a day later it was just kind of sickly but i don't entirely blame the incuabtor because my best hen sat on a clutch of about 14 and only one hatched so in my opinion it is okay but if you are serious you should probaly upgrade

I was desperate, I ordered some eggs online and they were sending a few more than my hen could comfortably cover. So I figured this thing was perfect. I could place three eggs (bantam) in it and then after an egg or two didn't develop under my hen at 10 days I could swap for whatever developed in the bator. No dice. Admittably I am a newbie at incubating eggs but yeesh. I figure you can probably get a 50/50 or so hatch rate out of this but maintaining temp was a problem, there is no way to check humidity and if you want to see the temperature you either need to put the thermometer on top of the eggs somehow or only put two in and use the 3rd's space for temp monitoring. There were likely other issues too but I won't be touching this thing again.

Worst bator ever!

No insulation + No thermostat = Hard to regulate temperature.

We actually got a 40% hatch rate out of this incubator, but only after hourly monitoring of temperature and humidity. Temp is "adjusted" by repositioning aluminum foil so that it reflects off more or less of the light bulbs heat. Constant attention is needed until you get this right. Then, if the room conditions change, more adjusting is needed. It becomes rather tedious.

This incubator I believe is great for a classroom setting, Because it holds only 3-4 eggs and it is very small and takes up hardly any room. This incubator is terrible for people who want to have lots of chicks.

Pros-
-very small
-great for classrooms

Cons-
-Not accurate in keeping temp or humidity
-Holds little eggs

Got this a bout 5 years ago, didnt work. tried it again still dosent hatch eggs. no thermostat, very hard to control temp (the only way is with aluminum foil) the only way you could get this to work is if u put it in a room with a constant temp or in side another running incubator!