Can you recommend me an incubator?

[BayGoose]

Hi everyone. I need to buy my first cabinet incubator. I don't want anything too large. Just to fit about 6 emu eggs at a time. I'm kinda unfamilar with the cabinet bators out there. Looking for $800 or below. I have two emu eggs squeezed into a brinsea eco (which works surprisingly well) and I have many chicken eggs I'd like to hatch so I need to make some room! And I'd like to incubate more than two emu eggs at a time. Thanks for any suggestions

 

[Grassman 52]

I just purchased a 2nd Dickey Incubator - made of solid wood with a plex-glass door - same as the sportsman.

I already own a 2x2 model and when I spoke with him on the phone, he sold me a 3 rack cabinet that he modifies for EMU eggs. 6 vents instead of 2 and special EMU racks that he makes.

Bottom line incubator and shipping $720 when I am done with EMU's adjust the digital thermostat and hatch chickens - ducks - geese - whatever.

DICKEY'S
INCUBATORS, INC
536 Ada Dr.
Millen, Georgia 30442
Our Phone/fax number is 478-982-5515
Or you can email Ernest Dickey by clicking my name


http://dickeyincubators.com/​

 

[Grassman 52]

OK received the new incubator and set my first eggs.


The one on the left is the 2X2 - two incubation racks and two hatching trays - full with geese and Muscovy eggs
The one on the right is the 3 tray (no hatching tray) model - EMU and other large eggs (also remove the PVC and can be used down to quail eggs)
You can see on the right that the trays have 6 inches of clearance between racks and come with PVC rod dividers

Both hold rock solid temp control and one is setup with the humidity system

 

[Raptor65]

It should be noted that those won't turn the Emu eggs properly, they need to be turned 180 degrees back and forth so the trays would basically need to flip completely upside down.

 

[Grassman 52]

Correct on the turning, what we do is run the auto-turn and hand turn the full 180 an odd number of times per day - Spoke with Ernest at Dickey's Incubators and they have sold hundreds of these EMU incubators starting in the 80's. You can follow my incubation and see how they work.

IMO

Pro's
Temp control within +- .2 degrees
Humidity control through the use of 6 large vents
Can hold 36 EMU eggs
Cost
Flexibility

Con's
Still need to hand turn large eggs that are set horizontally a limited number of times per day


My main reason for going with this type of incubator is that I also hatch Chickens - Ducks - and Geese, when I am done with the EMU hatch the 3 tray will become my main incubator and the 2X2 will be my hatcher.


Should be noted that even with Geese eggs - most people that use cabinet incubators also hand turn "once a day" with great results.

 

[Raptor65]

I've been grappling with an Emu egg auto turner recently, it's just a matter of getting my head around the electronics so I can build it. Just one of too many projects though.

 

[Grassman 52]

I called a few farms when I was looking for eggs and asked people what they were using for incubators and turning - a few said the have special incubators with a rolling system - rollers that roll the eggs one way and then back. I looked on line and also seen a special GQF cabinet that actually turns the racks completely upside down - each egg was in a basket and strapped down.

This is why on of my first posts was asking about auto-turns - I know I "needed" a second incubator but was not sure I could get one do to all I needed.


You should post your set-up so people can see the choices out there - It would be nice to see all the different setups that members use.

 

[Raptor65]

One way I've been reading up on is Arduino which is basically a tiny programmable computer, which is fairly expensive (Be easy to get up to or over $100) but would let me actually program a schedule and then it would be easy to change how often it turns.
The other would be to go the old fashioned way with a circuit, but I'll probably have to go pick some brains smarter than mine to get started. I can make a light bulb turn on but not much else.

 

[yinepu]

Hi everyone. I need to buy my first cabinet incubator. I don't want anything too large. Just to fit about 6 emu eggs at a time. I'm kinda unfamilar with the cabinet bators out there. Looking for $800 or below. I have two emu eggs squeezed into a brinsea eco (which works surprisingly well) and I have many chicken eggs I'd like to hatch so I need to make some room! And I'd like to incubate more than two emu eggs at a time. Thanks for any suggestions

If you're only wanting to incubate 6 emu eggs at a time.. and want something small.. how about a Reptipro?

 

[Grassman 52]

I love that we are starting to get a good discussion going on this subject.

What is a good number of eggs to do at once? for those of you that have done Emu eggs a couple of times, how many eggs have you set to get "X" number of chicks?

Are you setting like 8 to get 2 ? I have zero experience and no idea of what to expect.

Shipped eggs is the wild card.


Show pics of your setups so the people see the choices