3 Egg Incubator

[paddock36]

Has anyone used one of the small yellow incubators that holds 3 chicken eggs before with success? I have one from when my son was in cubscouts. We did not have any success with it back then but I am trying again. I had trouble with the temp. at first. It was going up to 110 but I finally got it to 100 degrees. I'm afraid I'm going to have hard boiled chicks.

 

[twigg]

Quote:
Never used one but a few thoughts:

Size matters. When you are trying to control environmental factors, small is hard, big is easy.

Price matters too, because, in general, accurate, well made parts and equipment are more costly than cheap, badly made parts.

In addition .... if you lose 1 egg from three you lost 33% of your hatch. 1 from 10 or 20 is easier to bear.

Tiny incubators can work, but require some skill, and some luck to be successful.

just my 2c

 

[Katy]

I've never used one either, but they haven't exactly gotten good reviews on here by people who have tried them.

 

[Akane]

I haven't heard of anyone that's used them being happy with them. It's all stories of eggs dying, chicks having trouble hatching, and even chicks dying after hatching because of the small space. They are too small with too little insulation to hold temps and humidity stable. Unless the room they are in is close to the conditions you need (do you keep your house above 80F and 30%+ humidity?) then the incubator is not enough to keep the right hatching conditions. Your best off getting one of the cheapest styrofoam hovabators or little giants. It'll cost you about $40 but you'll lose that much in eggs trying to hatch from those 3 egg dome bators. Now if you just want to throw money away on a small incubator for a couple eggs there is the rcom mini. Aside from hatching things like parrot eggs or possibly seramas I have no idea why anyone would spend so much on an incubator that only hatches a few eggs. You could get a hova with a turner and fan for that and hatch dozens of eggs at once pretty reliably. I've had 96% hatches out of my hova with no fan or turner.

 

[paddock36]

Where can I find one of those $40 incubators that you mentioned? All the ones I've seen have been $100 or so.

 

[pamperedpoultry]

Quote:
Ive got 2 incubators both cost around $40 to $50 all the farm supply stores around here have them. I've had at leat 75% or above hatch rate in mine each have hatched at leat 5 batches in them.

 

[Wifezilla]

You can make one for about $25

 

[Laskaland]

Gosh, I had pretty good luck with mine! I had silkies though, so the eggs were smaller and I think I had 4 in there, and I know three hatched...It was an experiment for me, but I did ok?

'course now I am looking at a Dickey- Thanks A LOT Miss Prissy and Miss Jayne, ya brats!

 

[cowman910]

I THINK YOU MIGHT BE MUCH BETTER LETTING A BROODY HEN

HATCH IT FOR YOU BECAUSE SHE CAN EASILY KEEP THE TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY LEVEL PERFECT.

 

[twigg]

Quote:
The one that might work well is the R-Com

But it costs aroud $125