We're looking for a small home incubator that's good for no more than 2 to 3 dozen quail eggs. We're looking at the brinsea mini eco ex that seems to be the best one to suit our purposes for now. Any recommendations anyone can give would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.
I have both the MiniAdvance and MiniAdvance EX incubators and I highly recommend them. They each hold about 12 or 13 quail eggs. (I have only hatched chicken and duck eggs.) I also recommend the Octagon20 Advance EX, which holds many more eggs.
I tried several incubators, and the best for us was the Brinsea Eco20 Octagon. I got them from the Brinsea site on sale for $99+ shipping. I don't see a need for an autoturner since it's easy to do manually, just rotating on the octagon shape sides 3 times a day. I have 4 of them, and get 95-100% hatches all the time. With post office shipped eggs though, hatches can range from 0-100% depending on how much they get shaken up on the way. I didn't have much luck with the Hovabator w/ autoturner so I gave that one to a friend. I also gave away the mini-size Brinsea mainly because it kept the humidity too high for our area (it's already humid here - Texas). It worked well for duck eggs though. With the Brinsea Eco20, I just fill one trough of water and leave the air-valve all the way open until day 19, and then fill both trays with water and close the air vent to 1/3-1/2.
I have both the brinsea eco 20, and the hovabator 1588. Both are very good, i do have the turner for the eco 20, but now think it is an unnessary expence as it would be easy to do by hand . The hovabator I do not have the turner for, and just block up one side or the other several times daily. I like the hovabator a little better, it holds more eggs, I've had 60 chicken eggs in it at times. Never had to mess with temps, holds humitiy better than the eco20, and I think it is very easy to clean.
