Best incubator

[PierreYohann]

What is the best incubator under 100?

 

[Briggadane]

The best one, is the one you find easiest to use. In general, you get much better hatches with circulated air and an egg turner.

When I set up my first incubator, I got about 50% hatch rate. It was a still air. As I got better at hatching(humidity, turning eggs myself) I got better results. Adding the automatic egg turner really boosted hatch rates. It is worth the investment. I ended up with 3 incubators. The cheap still air, the better still air with a turner, and the best was the circulated air with turner.

Your incubator will hold more eggs without the turner, so if you have enough eggs, your number of chicks hatched will equal out. IF your going to try and hatch expensive eggs or shipped eggs, you want to make the most of it. I had 3 different brands of styrofoam incubators. I did not see a difference in manufacturer.

I just got a new incubator yesterday, it was NIB, from Craigslist(a kid wanted it and never used it, mom sold it). FarmInnovations 4200. Its regularly $130. Its circulated air and has an egg turner. Go see what you can get. Try e-bay and search with "nearest fist" you may find something in your area and not have to pay shipping...

 

[AmyLynn2374]

What is the best incubator under 100?

How many eggs are you planning to incubate? Under $100 the only fairly decent incubator you are going to find is a mini. Your styrofoam LG's (Little Giants) are under $100 and hold 40+ eggs, but they are one of the worst you can get. If you look on ebay at the hovabators you can get a decent one for just above $100 and they are the better ones of the "cheap" bators. Forced is theoreticaly better than still air. Personally I think the turners are over rated unless you are extremely busy and can't turn 3xs a day. I stopped using my automatic turner two hatches ago and started manually turning. My last two hatch rates were 92% and 100%. Turners are nice, but like everything, they have a couple cons as well.

If you are not looking at doing a large clutch I would look into this: http://incubatorwarehouse.com/brinsea-mini-eco-egg-incubator.html?gclid=CKORhdO2qMYCFc0lgQod1qUMUw

Brinsea is one of the best brands you can buy, but they are pricey. The eco line is a little more cost friendly, but you have to turn the eggs yourself and monitor the humidity. Plus you are getting half the capacity, but a better bator with higher hatch rates. You can buy an LG for $50 and fill it with 40 eggs and end up with less than 10 hatching.

You can get the Hovabator 1588 between $130-150 on ebay or the 1583 which is basically the same thing w/o digital controls for just over $100 http://www.ebay.com/itm/GQF-Manufac...767?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item589c4225af

The Farm Innovators (another TSC incubator) has better reviews than the LG but not as good as the Hovabator. Your best bet would be (if you use ebay) do a search for inncubator, see what fits what you are looking for and then come back and ask about a specific bator and see who uses them and what they have to say. The Brinsea is going to get 95% good reviews and the LG (digital control models) are going to get 90-95% bad reviews.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's not hard to build an incubator. This all in one unit for desktop size incubators, $50, works flawlessly.

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/48-watt-incukit-dc.html

Using wood a simple box can be made with some venting and even use plexiglass for picture window in top. Just make it large enough for an egg turner tray with some space to side for water containers. This unit and an inexpensive Little Giant egg turner from local TSC, pine board and plexi glass would be about $100 and work better than a Hova-bator Genesis with turner that would cost $180.

The Hova-bator 1583 is not the same as the 1588. 1588 is preset temp and the 1583 is the same manual adjustment with metal wafer thermostat control as the 1602 with fan. The only difference being the picture window and fan is always included. I have a 1583 and love it. Only reason for the picture window was children viewing the hatches.

1602 with fan $75: With Turner and fan $94. That's your less than $100 deal without building one. Just get a good combo thermometer/hygrometer to go with it.

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/egg-incubators/combokits/hova-bator-1602n-combo-kits.html