Dickey vs Sportsman incubator

[Buster]

That's good to know Jim. I haven't had any problems with it, other than when I pull the tray out it will bring the water sometimes, but if I use less humidity I have failed hatches so I just do what works for me.

 

[spookychick]

Quote:
Great info! Thanks so much. I did go ahead and order the bucket. I'm sure it's fine, but I don't like the idea of opening and shutting the door every few days to add water. I'd love to know how that misting suggestion works out for people.

 

[the1much]

Quote:
i would buy some of those Pee pads,, and put in there,, after a while that water will get through the paint, and once that particle board gets wet,, your bummed

Quote:
Great info! Thanks so much. I did go ahead and order the bucket. I'm sure it's fine, but I don't like the idea of opening and shutting the door every few days to add water. I'd love to know how that misting suggestion works out for people.

alot of people that do ALOT of hatching say opening the door is good for them,, as long as its not during the hatch,, it exchanges the air inside,,,, and if ya think bout it,, the hen gets up and goes eat and poo,, and when ya candle they say you can keep them out for a half hour,,,,, and at a 2 minute recovery time,,, dont ever worry bout opening the door,,, IMO

 

[Buster]

Quote:
i would buy some of those Pee pads,, and put in there,, after a while that water will get through the paint, and once that particle board gets wet,, your bummed

Great idea Jim. Thanks!

 

[spookychick]

I guess I have to get used to the quick recovery time on the Sportsman. The Genesis units I'm currently using seem to take awhile, and I keep thinking I'm hurting the hatch rates with all the flux in temp and RH. Life will be good with the new bator!

 

[KYBOY]

Ive been researching and figuring about building my own.Its become painfully obvious that my two 1588's are not enough.My dad has a fully equiped wood working shop and im a pretty fair wood butcher myself..The cabinet part would be easy..Im putting together a parts list right now and trying to work up a price..Im wanting to build it a tad bigger than either the sportsman or dickey, Im just not sure if the auto tray turners will still turn a larger tray/ additional tray?? Maybe a semi-auto turner?

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
Pretty good spreadsheet. And I would definitely recommend the full acrylic door if you can afford it. It's one of the options I really wanted, and am glad I got.

Paula

What she said about the full acrylic door...I haven't even hatched eggs yet and I don't see how anyone can do without it! Luckily, the GQF I have on loan has one...the suspsense would kill me!

 

[kingbee]

I've had mine for 2 months now (Sportsman) and love it I rotate hatching a level each week. But I must have gotten the deluxe model cause mine is not partical board but rather painted plywood..
I would love a hatcher though...

 

[Euarto Gullible]

I have never owned a Sportsman, but I went through two defective 1588's which cooked chicks and eggs, and spoke to folks at GQF. They had no problem issuing me a refund, but they were very defensive about the quality of their thermostats and had no interest in hearing about the nature of my failures in order to try and understand and maybe take it back to the engineers to examine shortcomings in the design or a possible weakness in a component. I was told, "Acceptable industry standard is 2% failure for electronics. No matter what we do, we're going to get some of them back. You were just unlucky." In my opinion, the minute a company stops caring abound the nature of malfunctions in their defective returned units, is the minute they lose my business.
Contrast that with Dickey. I just bought a new 2x2 incubator. I called him this morning (yeah, he answered the phone on a Sunday morning) and told him the auto turner wasn't working. He explained to me how to open the top and check one of the three wires hadn't come loose during shipping. It had. It's working like a charm now. He was very concerned that my turner wasn't working and told me to call him right back. I prefer to deal with a person who takes personal pride in his work and puts his name on it, and treats his customers with personal concern instead of dismissing their problems as statistically insignificant.

 

[The Poultry Guy]

I have a Dickey and if i were you i would go with a GQF just for quality and ease of using.