Incubator Shopping have Questions??? Please Help!

[jlgoinggreen]

Hi everyone,
I am shopping for our very first incubator. Yay!!!

We were going to buy the Thermal Air Hova-Bator 1602N with the Turner combo, but after looking at a lot of different types dh and I think maybe we should invest in one with Circulated Air like the Genesis. If we did it this way we would not buy the Turner for now as we didn't budget for the higher price and wouldn't be able to afford both.

In your opinion with your past experiences, which would be the better deal.....should we get the Thermal Air with the Turner or the Circulated Air with no Turner (for now). How bad is the hatching rate without the turner? Is the Turner really that important? We homeschool, so turning eggs wouldn't be that bad for our first few tries. I'm thinking it would even be educational for them. My fear is every time we open to turn, we are letting the warm air out. For those that turn manually, is this a big problem?

These might seem like silly questions, but we have NO experience in this. Please excuse our ignorance and please, please help us. I am dieing to hatch some Maran eggs to add to my flock and was hoping for a good hatch rate.

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Can someone please help us decide? We're not sure if the Turner is really that important for hatching rate or if it is something just for convenience? Would it be better to buy the Circulated Air without the Turner or the Thermal Air with the Turner? Any advice out there?

 

[littledel]

I have a little giant and it works ok, keeps temp lever very well, but you have to be ssssoooo careful on everything. My biggest problem to date has been controlling humidity, so I bought a thermometer/hydrometer yesterday and this should help a lot. The best I have done though is about 26 hatch out of 40. I should do a little better now that I can track the humidity. I have turkey eggs in it now that will hatch in about 3 weeks. So, we will see. Personally, I am going to try and build me an incubator. Got a small non-working fridge from the local RV place for free. Just have to take stuff off and start redoing things. Will be a neat project. What ever you decide, make sure you get an egg turner, they are well worth the money!!

 

[coloradochick]

Hi, the Genesis 1588 is the way many BYCers go. It pretty much does everything without you having to mess with it. But you'll need to turn by hand if you don't purchase the auto turner with it. There are many posts on here about different bators. If you want to go to search and put the brand in you'll pull up lots of info. Good luck, may you hatch many'o chicks

 

[chubbydog811]

The LG's arent that bad as long as you are careful with them...They are very temperamental!! I love the 2 I have, and would recommend them to someone who is patient enough for them...
Once you have your temp set, it usually holds pretty well unless your room temp isnt stable...I found mine run best at 55-60* room temp. Humidity is pretty easy to deal with as long as you only add little bits at a time until you figure out how much/when to put water in. Mine is usually at a solid 35%.
The turner makes life MUCH easier, but it should affect your hatch too much if you dont have one, as long as you are starting with good eggs. Just make sure you turn them 3 times a day. I have mine side by side (one w/o turner, and one with) and havent seen a difference, other than the amount of work.

I cant say too much about the thermal compared to circulated air...I have only ever used the circulated...

I too would go with the genesis 1588, but when you look at price - $80 some for the LG circulated air (then $40 ish for turner), and $160 for the genesis (without turner!)...I would still rather go with the LG...

Hope this helps a little!

 

[ChickFila]

I would buy genesis 1588.
I bought hova-bator still air (1602N) with auto turner, and had a good hatch as a fist-timer (14 made lockdown and 10 hatched), second time was good too (14 made lockdown and 10 hatched, but they were all shipped eggs).
However, genesis has more consistant temp. and it is important. My 1602N had temp. spike couple times, temp. went up to 104F and had hard time to control the temp. quickly.
Genesis 1588 will hold temp more steady and more reliable.
Hand turn the eggs will not be a big issue, I think.
Anyway, you will not open the bator during lockdown, so you don't have to worry about losing humidity when it's the most important time.
Now I am planning to buy Genesis 1588 without turner (I can use egg turner which I bought with 1602N).
If I knew hand turning the eggs is not a big issue, I would have bought genesis 1588 at the beginning.

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Thanks a lot everyone. I didn't think to do a search here and was googling instead. I forget, when it comes to chickens this is better than google. LOL

What is a LG? That price looks really good to me! I've only read about the different types of Havo-Bators and Homemade. When it comes to quality, in your opinion, is it a "Brand Name" thing or is one really better than the other?

 

[Festa X11]

I don`t know if this incubator is available in the US, we borrowed one from a friend last year and it was fantastic. Then this year I built my own instead of buying one myself, dont ask why it was just something i did lol.

http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/203.html

 

[Peep_Show]

LG stands for "Little Giant"... a styrofoam box, thermostat and heater. You can upgrade and add on a fan. It's manufactured by Miller, I think. I have an old one that is close to 20 years old that was in storage for a decade or so. I put a new wafer in and it is holding temp at 100 real steady. It hatched out great before (goose, duck and chicken eggs) long before I knew about lockdowns and humidity. I threw a turner in there.... Wow! What a nice luxury!

I agree... they are tempermental until you have them set right. I rigged up a fan in mine and couldn't maintain a decent temp without mood swings (thermostat, not mine!). So back to still air as it worked before and will work again... People are either a big fan of LG's or not....kinda like liver.

 

[IggiMom]

You know, the turner from the Little Giant fits very nicely in the Genesis.

So that saves a little.

I definitely think forced air is worth it. I may get a fan for my LG one of these days.

Catherine