Best Incubators - Review your favorite!

[lareynadenada]

I just bought the ADV 20 with turner, plugged it in, it got to temp and just held steady all day self adjust the temp. So far I love it! I also bought the ova-scope and this thing is amazing, looked at a brown egg (non-fertile) you can see all the way thru it, and you can rotate the egg,,,,,,,,,,I will set eggs Wednesday and i am very excited after using an old LG that I had to constantly adjust the temp on. Had it kill 24 shipped eggs, before I figured out the problem. I thought my grandson was messing with it (he's 2) Then I figured out we had an electricity problem, when the A/C was on during the day the bator wasn't getting full power, when we went to bed and turned the air off the bator shot up to 108,,,,,,,,,,,,,think I will love this Brinsea!!!

Shoulda known with this one!!! LOL One yearS???? Warranty

 

[gronsk]

Fire recall!

http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2013/Brower-Recalls-Top-Hatch-Egg-Incubators-Due-to-Fire-Hazard/

 

[roostereggs]

Hello!
I am new to BYC but have been doing 'chicken research' for a few months because we just bought a house in the East Valley that came with 8 chickens and their own personal bodyguard...errr...guard dog.

They were in terrible shape when we first got them, but seem to be doing much better on chicken crumble plus fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, suet, leftovers, and a whole lot of TLC! Their only source of feed before this was corn. According to neighbors, they are in the 3 to 8 year age range, but we average 4 eggs per day from 7 hens.

My next project is working on their housing. They are in 2/3 of a three-horse corral (36' x 12') with metal roof, and a ton of chicken wire/hardware wire around it. The problem is they have little shade and I am not sure how they have survived summers without it. :'( I am hoping to put corrugated tin on the west side, and hang sun shades or something on the south side because they only have 24 x 2 feet of shade during the day. Or possibly grow vines up the south side.

Does anyone have advice on how to enclose the space more but still have good ventilation?

Thanks!

 

[roostereggs]

Sorry...Just realized I am in the wrong thread!

 

[scopechick]

This thread is very helpful. I am planning for my first ever batch of eggs in the spring so am trying to compare incubators...seems like the Hovabator and R-Com 20 are the ones to choose from. I have so much to learn about this.....but it is so exciting!

Chris

 

[Sterkfarm]

Hi, I'm alllll brinsea Eco. I think it's a bit unfair to compare styros to others because they are so different in a way; but I pop the eggs in, pipping on schedule 21 days later, the autoturner is awesome, or even manually when I'm staggering hatches.
Also it's easy to clean and disinfect, and sturdy, it feels like it would last a lifetime! I know it's about $100 more than the genesis, but it's smaller footprint makes it easy to tuck away. I had it on my night table even with room to spare.
I have never had to be a humidity watcher either. I think there is a big advantage with the trays because they keep the air cells up helping 'heal' them after shipping. The chicks zip and pip like nobody's business. Love love love the brinsea!!!!

 

[seminolewind]

Anyone use that one with the hinge top on ebay? http://www.ebay.com/itm/221150624553?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

[scopechick]

I recently purchased a Janoel8-48. Read a lot of conflicting reports on it but I ran it empty for a month checking temp and humidty display with two other devices to determine accuracy.. Easily controlled humidity and temp. The only thing That would make me like it more is an easier way to refill the water. Nice big incubator comes standard with egg turner, fan, digitL display and settable alarms for humidity, temp etc. Have recently hatched 8/8 black copper maran eggs so it worked pretty good. Good value for money I think.

 

[mckeesbackyard]

I've used a Hovabator Genesis 1588 that I got for Christmas a couple of times & have found the product unreliable. One of the egg trays broke and the lever that moves the trays that's attached to the automatic turner chipped. In my opinion, waiting & saving for a Brinsea or an RCom is the best way to go based on the Brinsea reviews and my personal experience with the RCom. I practically am useless after I've set the eggs. I still check the incubator out of habit but not to add water or tweak the temperature. It is so efficient at keeping the temperature & humidity constant. Our very first hatch on our RCom Pro 50 is due in 10 days (love that it has a digital count down) and we're so excited! Owning my "Hatchinator" (RCom Pro 50) & the "Mini-Hatchinator" (RCom Pro 20) has given me the confidence to have eggs shipped to us. I am looking forward to finding out how these beasts would perform with those types of eggs.

 

[informative]

Building your own can be rewarding and cheaper as well as educational and give you full control of the features and precision.

My first build used this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181398019930?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
The upside was it was only switching 12V on and off so it could not switch say a light bulb on and off which meant I had the bulb on all the time and every 5-10 minutes it would reach 38 C and the 12V would switch on a cooling fan to vent hot air until it dropped down to 37 C and then it would cut off the fan and start warming up again. The big downside to this method was it tended to drop the humidity because it was venting too much. another big downside is if the 12V switch ever fails or the fan fails the eggs will cook.

My next build includes this instead
http://www.ebay.com/itm/380744999957?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
This has the ability to not only turn the bulb off to cool down but doesn't have to vent good moist air to cool down. Instead it uses less electricity because the bulb is off half the time or more and as an added bonus since it is in English degrees F instead of metric the 1 degree 99 to 100 range is tighter thus giving better control over the temperature.

Egg turning is not included in my first two builds so I am simply sticking a box of macaroni under the left side of the bator in the morning and switching it to the right side in the evening. Once I get an improved result with the manual home made builds I will add the slow motion telescope/clock motor and some sort of egg tray to allow them to roll from side to side gently without the macaroni box. Thus far the above two links are the only purchases because I sourced the styrofoam chest free, as well as the 110v bulb lamp from an old lamp, temp/humidity meter was already owned and the 12V fan was an old tiny computer fan with a potentiometer so I could turn the noise and speed on the fan down (at full speed the fan would cut off at 37 C but keep cooling down to 36.7 C because too much air was being drawn through - slower means slower temp drop and better control)