Best small incubator for school kids (& repeated use)

[MsRiderUp]

Hi,
Am starting a program for school kids --- incubating fertilized eggs. I will need a couple of durable incubators that automatically turn eggs, have a good times, good humidity control, etc. Will likely get more if the program grows, but need something durable and fairly simple (that the kids can see the chicks hatch in!). Plan to only incubate about 12-24 eggs at a time.

Thanks!

 

[starkist72]

I'm following this thread

I used to teach kindergarten and hatched every year using a super old styrofoam incubator, we usually hatched 3 or 4 chicks out of a dozen or so.
Now I do home daycare and I've been hatching with a farm innovators still air, this is my first hatch using a turner and I don't like how close the eggs sit to the heating element.
Also, it's very easy for the kids to mess with the temp. I don't know if they make any with more hidden controls. My daycare kids checked on the eggs today at 4 today, and I found around 8 that the temp was spiked to 110! the dial was way up! I'm pretty sure we lost everything... I'm going to have disappointed kiddos on Tuesday

keep me posted! i've searched and searched this site and I'm surprised there aren't more teachers on here!

 

[MeepBeep]

IMO few if any over the counter incubator fits the bill... Not saying that no over the counter will work as their is little question many are in use in schools everywhere, from bottom of the basement foam ones to higher end ones...

Let me explain my reasoning why most commercial ones fail to fit the bill...

Almost all commercial offerings have small if not limited viewing areas, I have two children and they fight over viewing space and bump and push around the incubator, I can't imagine having 10, 20 or 30 kids trying to get a peek...
They almost always have out in open controls that are just begging for kids to play with...
Even the better constructed ones are not really made for the type of abuse children can toss at them...
School incubators (IMO due to weekends and long overnights with no monitoring) need to be almost fully automated and few commercial offerings provide this reliably over several days...
Again on the lack of overnight and weekend access complicates things, little stuff that can be tweaked at home doesn't happen when you can't get to the incubator, especially say during a storm with the loss of power...
*I have heard many teachers bringing the incubator home for the nights and weekends but again very few incubators are designed for this type of handling among other hassles...

With that said and a few other issues, I personally believe a custom built unit is likely the best choice, but then of course you run into finding someone to build it and the cost associated...

I can't even find a decent commercial unit that fits the needs I want at home and thus I'm going to design/build my own from ground up for this reason...

Either way good luck on your quest, may I suggest looking at Brinsea Octagons, they have the most bells and whistles, but they come with a price...

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi,
Am starting a program for school kids --- incubating fertilized eggs.  I will need a couple of durable incubators that automatically turn eggs, have a good times, good humidity control, etc. Will likely get more if the program grows, but need something durable and fairly simple (that the kids can see the chicks hatch in!). Plan to only incubate about 12-24 eggs at a time.

Thanks!

I would recommend the Brinsea octagon20 advance EX. I know they are more expensive but they are really worth it. I have one and love it. It really is a set and leave incubator. It has a humidity pump that works with the incubator to pump water into it as required. It has an auto turn cradle that the incubator sits on and it turns the eggs on a hourly cycle. The temp holds great and the pump takes so much worry out of incubation. You just set on your incubator what you want and then when the humidity drops one% of what you want the pump kicks in to add more water. It has good clear sides for viewing and the controls on top of the incubator are child proof as you need to press two buttons at the top to unlock the menu. I have had great hatches with this incubator my last two were 100% hatch of eggs that made it to lockdown. Good luck with your school program