Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 Incubator is AMAZING!

[Iluveggers]

Hi everyone I’m back and getting ready for another hatch!

This time I have a mix of shipped and local eggs. I was wondering if anyone has kept the turner in with shipped eggs? I have one detached air cell and I will have to put that one upright and manually tilt for a few days, but I don’t really want to manually turn all 21 eggs. Ideas on how to let the turner work for the rest? Should I put all shipped eggs upright until the first candle just in case? I love this NR360 but there isn’t an upright turn…my only wish!

I had to start this time at 100 instead of 99.5, and that seems to be keeping it between 99.3 and 99.7 on my govee.

 

[junior67]

Hi everyone I’m back and getting ready for another hatch!

This time I have a mix of shipped and local eggs. I was wondering if anyone has kept the turner in with shipped eggs? I have one detached air cell and I will have to put that one upright and manually tilt for a few days, but I don’t really want to manually turn all 21 eggs. Ideas on how to let the turner work for the rest? Should I put all shipped eggs upright until the first candle just in case? I love this NR360 but there isn’t an upright turn…my only wish!

I had to start this time at 100 instead of 99.5, and that seems to be keeping it between 99.3 and 99.7 on my govee.

I put mine in flat with the turner. My detached air cell did fine. I only had them upright the day they tested. Some went in the incubator some under the broody.

I read many that said they didn't really see a difference in upright or right in flat

 

[SaintIzzy]

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I know with Spring right around the corner, and chick fever setting in there are a lot of people out there looking to purchase their first incubator, or maybe you're still looking for that incubator with a better hatch rate that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg, so I wanted to share my experience!

I did a lot of research before purchasing an incubator and there are good and bad reviews for even the most expensive incubators out there so taking my budget into account and what I wanted from my incubator I am SO happy with the results I got from my new Harris Farms Nurture Right 360! If you do your own research on the incubator most of the bad reviews you will find are on a couple of design flaws in the older models where the holes covering the fan were too large and it needed a cover on the digital readout to prevent it from shorting out from the high humidity at hatch time. In the newer models, these issues have been resolved but if you get an older incubator you can email the company and they will send you the appropriate parts to fix it.

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So back to the PROS of this incubator, at least for me!
- It comes with an automatic turner! I found that the most reasonable incubators often require manual egg turning and if you purchase the accompanying auto turner you find yourself around the same price as this incubator or more.
- It also has an egg candler built-in to the top of the incubator. It worked well for the sake of testing it but I will admit that I didn't use it much because I prefer my little high lumen flashlight.
- The visibility all the way around the incubator was a HUGE selling point for me! I could say it was for my daughter to be able to learn from the experience but if I'm being really honest, I most definitely spent the most hours sitting in front of the incubator in awe as the chicks hatched. lol
- The temperature and humidity stayed stable throughout the entire incubation process as long as you add distilled water daily.
- You add water from outside of the incubator so you don't disturb the temp and humidity.
- The company calibrated the thermometer and hygrometer well and I didn't have to go through the headache of trying to adjust it myself.
- This is thanks to the visibility as well but I was able to clearly see that all of the chicks hatched with zero issues. The eggs zipped cleanly and chicks were healthy! Yes, some of this is from genetics but it makes a big difference when the temp and humidity stay stable for the chicks ease of hatching.
- Because I was incubating different breeds my smaller eggs hatched earlier and I didn't want to leave the chicks in too long. Since the larger eggs hadn't pipped yet I took the risk of quickly opening the incubator and removing the hatched chicks. While I don't recommend doing that, what I was pleasantly surprised to find is that the humidity returned to normal in seconds and the rest of the chicks hatched without issue.

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CONS
- The top is a bit cumbersome to open and close but once you get used to it it's not so bad. I have also seen where someone used the adhesive plastic hooks and attached them to the sides upside down so that it was easier to hook their fingers under and open.
- The incubator holds 22 eggs but I feel like it would be very cramped in there if all of the eggs are viable at the time of hatch. I had quite a few infertile eggs because they were the first eggs of the season (8 infertile eggs to be exact) and 2 were quitters early in embryo development (it's impossible for me to know if the 2 quitters were due to the incubator or something else but I feel with my experience that it's less likely to be related to the incubator). All but one of the developed chicks hatched successfully and I candled right before lockdown and didn't feel good about that egg prior to closing the lid. It was also a poopy egg that I was hatching for a friend, I typically only use clean eggs as the bacteria can enter the porous shell and may have been responsible for the late embryo death. So my first run with the incubator gave me approximately 80% hatch rate (not including the infertile eggs). I anticipate having an even better hatch when I'm pickier about the eggs I set to begin with. - I'll update this later.

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***I promise all of these pictures were taken through the plastic. I did not open the incubator to take pictures. lol

For anyone that reads this far through the thread I would assume you're actually interested in the incubator. So the best tip I have is that I used a condiment bottle to add the water and I left the vent open all the way through the entire incubation because I felt the ventilation was important and it didn't effect my ability to keep the humidity where I wanted it.
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So my experience was great! I'd love to hear about your experiences with the Nurture Right 360!
I'll be participating in the Easter Hatch-A-Long with the same incubator so I will update my opinion if it changes.

This will be my third hatching using the nuture right 360. Every time I have to help get the chicks out they just break out. My hatch rate is very poor, some of the little ones die trying to get out. That is the reason I started helping them out.

 

[SourRoses]

This will be my third hatching using the nuture right 360. Every time I have to help get the chicks out they just break out. My hatch rate is very poor, some of the little ones die trying to get out. That is the reason I started helping them out.

That sounds like a high humidity problem. Since you're in Texas have you run them as dry incubations?

 

[SaintIzzy]

That sounds like a high humidity problem. Since you're in Texas have you run them as dry incubations?

Thank you I will try dry incubation and see how it goes. Can you switch from forced air to dry incubation early in the process like 15 days left?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Hi everyone I’m back and getting ready for another hatch!

This time I have a mix of shipped and local eggs. I was wondering if anyone has kept the turner in with shipped eggs? I have one detached air cell and I will have to put that one upright and manually tilt for a few days, but I don’t really want to manually turn all 21 eggs. Ideas on how to let the turner work for the rest? Should I put all shipped eggs upright until the first candle just in case? I love this NR360 but there isn’t an upright turn…my only wish!

I had to start this time at 100 instead of 99.5, and that seems to be keeping it between 99.3 and 99.7 on my govee.

I always put my shipped eggs directly into the turner, even if the air cells are saddled, unless the air cell is completely detached, like floating around.

 

[SourRoses]

Thank you I will try dry incubation and see how it goes. Can you switch from forced air to dry incubation early in the process like 15 days left?

Forced Air just means there is a fan in there turning the air around so the temperature stays more even.
Dry incubation means not adding any water to the tray so the humidity is based on your ambient humidity + what the eggs loose via transpiration.
You can switch to Dry at any time except once eggs have pipped when the humidity should be boosted. Candling your eggs and posting pictures could help you find out if the aircells look about right for their stage of development.

 

[Iluveggers]

I always put my shipped eggs directly into the turner, even if the air cells are saddled, unless the air cell is completely detached, like floating around.

Ok, this one is floating with bubbles. The rest look ok. Here’s a pic of the bad one…

Thanks @CluckNDoodle

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ok, this one is floating with bubbles. The rest look ok. Here’s a pic of the bad one…
View attachment 3125084
Thanks @CluckNDoodle

I would probably leave this one upright or not set it at all to be honest. Bubbles in my experience usually means that it was shaken quite a lot and it unlikely to hatch or even start developing. BUT there's also no harm in trying as long as you don't set too high of expectations for it.

 

[junior67]

Mine didn't have bubbles but the air cell was floating all around. That was S5. as I said I didn't expect anything to grow from it. I had some that were saddled that seemed to "fix" themselves after I set them int eh incubator. They weren't perfect but not as bad as they looked before. S5 did attach after it was in the incubator and very saddled (I will share a pic of my pencil outline of the air cell at the end) that was the ONLY one that hatched from the incubator. I put it in with the rest as normal and let it spin. as I said I had zero faith it would do anything.