Incubator Questions

[chickenmanNC]

Hi Friends!

I am the proud owner of 25 chickens, 4 adult guineas, and 15 keets (also 3 dogs, 3 cats, 1 turtle) that are nine days old. I am now considering hatching some eggs for fun with my family. My daughter hatches eggs in her 2nd grade classroom and now we are going to try it for some quality time as a hobby to have together. So, I have a few questions about incubators that I need some help with.

1) Which type of incubator is the easiest to use?
2) If a buy a "universal turner rack", will my guinea eggs fit or do they have to go in a "quail rack"?
3) What is the difference in hatch percentage with hand-turning the eggs and using an automatic turner?

Thanks for any advice and help you can give.

 

[ozexpat]

Hi Friends!

I am the proud owner of 25 chickens, 4 adult guineas, and 15 keets (also 3 dogs, 3 cats, 1 turtle) that are nine days old. I am now considering hatching some eggs for fun with my family. My daughter hatches eggs in her 2nd grade classroom and now we are going to try it for some quality time as a hobby to have together. So, I have a few questions about incubators that I need some help with.

1) Which type of incubator is the easiest to use?
2) If a buy a "universal turner rack", will my guinea eggs fit or do they have to go in a "quail rack"?
3) What is the difference in hatch percentage with hand-turning the eggs and using an automatic turner?

Thanks for any advice and help you can give.

There are lots of opinions on incubators.

Whatever you chose, get one with a fan

I have a Hovabator 1588, a pair of 1602 and a Farm Innovators styro. I put the fan kits in the 1602N and I used a PC fan in the FI.

Personally I am not a fan of mechanical thermostats so I use STC-1000 (from ebay or amazon) to control the temps. It makes the incubator infinitely more reliable. I also have a wine box hatcher, a 576 egg megabator and a display case hatcher I made myself.

The Hovabator Genesis 1588 is easy to use - set and forget. Its worth the money. The brinseas are a lot more, easier to clean and programmable but smaller.

I use a turner whenever I can. The universal will handle guineas. Quail turners will be too small.

On fresh local eggs I get 90+ percent on a turner. My lifestyle is not compatible with manual turning

Get a gram scale and a good LED flashlight and a reliable digital thermo/hygrometer as well.

Good luck!!