Best incubator?

[1-duckling]

If you don't want to work at it, the Brinsea or the King Suro. Both spendy if you're really not sure you're going to continue. Auto everything. Of course working at getting the bator just right and constantly mothering it is half the fun.

I used Little Giants and had a Profi-I. Liked the Profi by Lyon but really didn't need to hatch out 300 eggs at a time and the electric bill, wowsa! Spiked every time I used the Profi. I've downsized to the King Suro 20 last month and just watched it do its thing. 12 sweet little polish and 3 cuckoo marans hatched out perfectly last Thursday.

 

[Crazy Chicken Fever]

I have a hovabator and 3 lg-9200 and I dislike the Little Giants. It seems like the temp always has to be watched and seems to spike all the time. The Hovabator keeps great temps and seems to be much easier to work with. If I was rich, all 3 of my Little Giant bators would find a nice home in the trash. So far they have killed about 80 eggs from temp spikes on day 4 and 5...no reason for that. Not to mention they are in the basement where the temp stays close to the same all the time.


What a bummer!

 

[1-duckling]

Yep. The Little Giant was a paaaaiiiiin! Had the same problems trying to keep temp and humidity. It's so nice to have the King Suro.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Quote:
I love my 1588 Genesis

 

[walkswithdog]

I tell you what, if you like big batches of 40 plus, buy a Dickey. It's what I was going to get before I found an antique redwood incubator locally for 75.00. It holds 700 eggs LOL or does small batches.

A Dickey offers you choice in how many you hatch, is made in the USA by a man whom you can talk to. It's made of wood, gorgeous and has a great reputation.

You can buy a Brinsea but the upper hatch limit is tiny for the same amount of money. You can buy a Hovabator - I find foam tiny, annoying and irritatingly designed no matter how well it works.

I tried an LG, got it to work well, hated foam bators by the time I was done, for size, cramped space, heat elements on top that were low to eggs and burned my hands when I put them in the bator, I hated top opening bators. So then I built my own.

Ending up with a stable useful mini-fridge one and a wine cooler one. Then I found the redwood one. Building my own taught me a LOT I would not have known about incubating.

Despite having the redwood one, I'm keeping the mini-fridge, it works really well and fits on my desk in the office. So it stays.

 

[Cherlyn]

I am currently using a Covatutto 7, a homemade incubator, and an R-Com 20.
Hands down, the R-Com 20 is my favorite. Totally automatic - just top it off with water every three days and you are good to go!

My homemade one was fun to make, but definitely I need to keep it running for a few days prior to setting the eggs, to stabilize it as much as possible. Heat sinks are my friend, with this one.

The Covatutto 7 is totally manual, and I have not gotten good hatch rates with it. Trying to hatch quail in it this time around. Quail are so much easier to hatch than chickens, so I am hoping that this incubator can at least handle quail.

~Cherlyn

 

[Pathfinders]

I have a GQF Sportsman setter, and a separate hatcher. Wouldn't do without them. I will also say that I had DISMAL results with Little Giant units, just too hard to keep stable in my house. Sprung for the GQFs and never looked back.

 

[canada-goose]

Doesn't anyone else love the Turn-x?

 

[jerseygirl1]

Thank you all so, so much!!!!!!!!

 

[Junkmanme]

In my "not-so-humble" opinion, the BEST incubator that you can get is one that is "functional" and "FREE".

Mostly, that is a broody hen.

But, sometimes (rarely) we can get lucky and get a hovabator or such for "nuthin"...............

-Junkmanme-