I have a bone to pick with all you incubating ppl...

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

I have 3 incubators going from March to August. Hatch for a friend. Had about 12 batches from May till today. Mostly ducks and mix of chickens including silkies. Many of the duck batches were 100 percent hatch rate as long as the egg was fertile. Stressed over the first few batches and then learned just leaving them and checking humidity daily gave me the the best success. Have a Little giant that I added a fan to and it has been ultra successful, I manually turn in that one, and 2 Janoel 24 that are also ultra reliable. Those have auto turners. With the Janoel you have to reverse the fan so it blows up and around the top instead of blowing straight down on the eggs. Got those for uber cheap on Amazon on warehouse deals. Under 60 Canadian. Once the machine is set, candle a few times, check your humidity and leave them. Let nature do its thing and you will have excellent success. I have silkies popping out as I type this.

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Awwww looka, Daphnie! She is SO cute.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

I have 3 incubators going from March to August. Hatch for a friend. Had about 12 batches from May till today. Mostly ducks and mix of chickens including silkies. Many of the duck batches were 100 percent hatch rate as long as the egg was fertile. Stressed over the first few batches and then learned just leaving them and checking humidity daily gave me the the best success. Have a Little giant that I added a fan to and it has been ultra successful, I manually turn in that one, and 2 Janoel 24 that are also ultra reliable. Those have auto turners. With the Janoel you have to reverse the fan so it blows up and around the top instead of blowing straight down on the eggs. Got those for uber cheap on Amazon on warehouse deals. Under 60 Canadian. Once the machine is set, candle a few times, check your humidity and leave them. Let nature do its thing and you will have excellent success. I have silkies popping out as I type this.

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So Myles, what incubator would you suggest for an uber newbie then? Seems to me an auto turner is the way to go; but what do I know.

 

[mylesrrom]

So Myles, what incubator would you suggest for an uber newbie then? Seems to me an auto turner is the way to go; but what do I know.

Honestly I think manually turning 180 two or three times a day works the best to be honest. Works great in the Little giant. All my eggs lay flat, none are upright turners. Little giant is good but needs to be circulated air so it needs the fan. The Janoels are great but need to pop the lid and reverse the fan. The little giant needs more effort to clean between batches since its styrofoam. For a small incubator I would make try the Kebbonnix on amazon or the manna pro harris. Most important... Never rely on the thermostat reading on your incubator... all mine run hot according to the thermostat. Get the inkbird ith-12 which is bluetooth and there is an app for your phone. It tracks and graphs the temp and humidity. Use that to set your incubator. I had to turn all mine down. Set it at the height of the top of your eggs. So many people fail because they rely on the incubator reading which can actually be 2 or 3 degrees off.

Don't buy the little rectangular temp/hygrometers you see everywhere for about 4 bucks. I bought a 3 pack and everyone gives me a totally different readout that is couple degrees apart. I put my faith in the inkbird and they have hatched ontime and had many 100 percent hatch rates, so that is what I would recommend. I think any of the incubators I mentioned would be fine....

Todays silkies.... this is the thermometer I said not to buy, I just use it to show me humidity is up.... not for setting temps.

Whichever one you choose, read, read, read on hatching.... there are lots of good guides out there. Read on air cells, humidity, etc. See if you air cells are expanding at the correct rate to know if your humidity is possible to high or low. The more you know, the better success you will have. There is no auto incubator that does it all for you, you still need to know the process and understand what is the proper method. Its not hard, just inform yourself.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

All bets are off the day I stop by TSC and they have something cool like say: black australorps, ANY frizzles; oh lawd let them not ever have any frizzles.

Oh my...if they get frizzles my willpower is gone honey! Frizzle baby chicks? Can there be anything more adorable?

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Honestly I think manually turning 180 two or three times a day works the best to be honest. Works great in the Little giant. All my eggs lay flat, none are upright turners. Little giant is good but needs to be circulated air so it needs the fan. The Janoels are great but need to pop the lid and reverse the fan. The little giant needs more effort to clean between batches since its styrofoam. For a small incubator I would make try the Kebbonnix on amazon or the manna pro harris. Most important... Never rely on the thermostat reading on your incubator... all mine run hot according to the thermostat. Get the inkbird ith-12 which is bluetooth and there is an app for your phone. It tracks and graphs the temp and humidity. Use that to set your incubator. I had to turn all mine down. Set it at the height of the top of your eggs. So many people fail because they rely on the incubator reading which can actually be 2 or 3 degrees off.

Don't buy the little rectangular temp/hygrometers you see everywhere for about 4 bucks. I bought a 3 pack and everyone gives me a totally different readout that is couple degrees apart. I put my faith in the inkbird and they have hatched ontime and had many 100 percent hatch rates, so that is what I would recommend. I think any of the incubators I mentioned would be fine....

Todays silkies.... this is the thermometer I said not to buy, I just use it to show me humidity is up.... not for setting temps.

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1) Thanks; and 2) That is the hygrometer I have and unless I push it from behind the darn numbers don't fully show up (rolling my eyes).

Thanks for taking the time to write that comprehensive report. Have a good rest of your weekend.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Oh my...if they get frizzles my willpower is gone honey! Frizzle baby chicks? Can there be anything more adorable?

You know, really I have NEVER seen one (chick nor adult) IRL?

 

[Bahamachick]

LOL I feel for you, my husband thought I was crazy but I was so worried the whole time honestly hoovering over the incubator and when the were hatched you would have thought a world event had happened. 5 months later and i am still obsessed with my chickens.

 

[Iluveggers]

So Myles, what incubator would you suggest for an uber newbie then? Seems to me an auto turner is the way to go; but what do I know.

Myles gave a great detailed answer!

As a newbie, I got an NR360 because of the info I found on this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rture-right-360-incubator-is-amazing.1294466/

Thread starter is still active, and lots of members to ask incubator-specific questions to. It is $149 markdown on Amazon, but people on the thread have like 2-3 of them! I had over 50% hatch rate with shipped eggs which I was excited about. Water adding is on the outside so you don’t have to keep opening, and it auto-turns about once every hour.

 

[Jeddice]

Listen here you incubating men and women of this backyard chicken world....

Y'all didnt warn nobody about how addicting this mess is and how it CONSUMES your life!! This is my first time incubating eggs and I think Im worse then the a real mother hen...cant go 30 mins/hour without checking the humidity and temp on all my gadgets.....shining my candling flashlight thru the plastic of the incubator just to see the little 'chicken beans' do their shimmying and make sure veins are still there....when I'm not even home I'm still wondering if they're okay. WHAT IN FRESH HELL!?...

Why didn't I read any of this in a forum or book!? Or am I just bonkers??

We just hatched our first chick yesterday. I’m so with you on this. I call my husband who is a home this weekend because of hatching day, 5 times so far today. I’m at camp 100miles away. It’s driving me bonkers! I work here so I can’t run home to “nothing happening”.

 

[WallyG74]

Check your temps... too high a temp and you'll get more cockerels than pullets. It may only be a decimal point or two, but it's enough. Try to keep it at the 99.5 but no lower than 99.2 for more pullets.