In your opinion...whats the best bator out there ?

[CityChicker]

For decent priced incubators that hold a small number of eggs, I would say the Genesis or the Brinsea. You can do waterfowl and chickens fine in both. For the duck eggs, just do them on their sides in the Brinsea Octagons or the same in the Genesis (or in the Goose egg turner) or you can hand turn. Both are great small incubators, just don't be fooled into buying any styrofoam incubator other than the Genesis that has the pre-set electronic thermostat.

 

[Shaun]

It depends on how much you want to spend, what you're hatching, and how many eggs you're willing to lose. A Hovabator will do OK with fresh chicken eggs of your own. Forget it for turkey eggs - you can't raise the humidity enough.

I've no experience with ducks, but I suspect they need high humidity as well.

If you want no fuss, no muss, and amazing hatch rates, I would recommend a Brinsea Octagon 20 with the humidity pump. I found one used on Craig's list by google-ing the name and reading through multiple pages - you can find Craig's list postings from other areas that way if you're willing to scan through many search result pages.

You put in the eggs (don't need any special racks) from Quail to Turkey, set the temp (or use the default), set the humidity, and except for filling the humidity pump container, forget it until lockdown time. Then take out the egg dividers, reset your temp and humidity (if you need to for the type of eggs you're hatching) and wait for them to hatch! It's a bit crowded the first 24, but if it gets too bad you can quickly take off the top, grab the hatched ones and put them in the brooder, and the incubator will be back up to temp and humidity in a matter of a minute or two.

I work 56 a week, with crazy hours, and the Brinsea has been a great thing for me, as I can go off to work and know everything will be fine.

 

[gryeyes]

What Shaun said. EXACTLY.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

R-com King Suro Just like the Brinsea Octagon 20 with humidity pump...at 1/2 the cost.

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

I started with 3 LG's with automatic turners, and fans that my husband installed....."fair" results were the best I could get.....definitely not worth spending any money on.

We built an incubator out of an old dorm size fridge....great circulation of air....no problem maintaining humidity.....auto-turners fit......only problem was we could never find a heat source with an accurate thermostat to maintain the proper temp. Never hatched anything in it.

Then a friend recommended the R-com Suro; my husband got me one for my birthday...I LOVE it!!! It really is "plug & play". Great hatches, which is pretty important when you're paying alot for quality eggs.

 

[BayChicks]

Love our Hovabator Genesis 1588 with turner (all 3 of them). We've hatched turkeys, ducks, and chickens successfully in there with near 100% hatches with our own eggs - lower of course with shipped eggs, but still good stats. It's humid here on the coast, so I have to cover part of the water tray with foil to get the humidity down a bit, then I just take it off for hatching.
Two of our 1588's ran a little hot when we got them so I had to adjust the temp down a bit.

 

[huckleberryfarm]

I have the RCom King Suro 20 too. I've had several great hatches with it and no problems at all. In fact, I just ordered another one. It's great!