Incubators Anonymous

[Arielle]

CHickensnBees-- watcha lookin' for???? Have muscovy up for BIN on the crazy 24 hr thread in the BST section . . . . or how about some bourbon Red turkeys???

 

[Turkeytruff]

I have 4 Little Giants you can have. Either the incubators are garbage, or I am incredibly inept. I have been trying to incubate chicken and duck eggs for 3 years now, and failing more miserably at it with each passing year. I will get one or two lonely babies - and then I end up giving them away, because what do you do with just one? Twice I have hatched fluffy yellow ducklings and had to euthanize them for leg deformities. I have thrown away or buried bags full of eggs that were just fine at lockdown, but never hatched. It has been a fruitless, heartbreaking experience. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person. I read and researched everything I could get my hands on. I dutifully asked questions and took all advice and tried my best. I know when I am beat. I am a recovering incubator addict - and I will never succumb to this addiction again.

I am so sorry to hear about your frustrations as well.

I agree, it is heartbreaking to go through it all and not get decent results. And you are the one in the end who decides when you have enough.

 

[HereDucky]

I am so sorry to hear about your frustrations as well.  I agree, it is heartbreaking to go through it all and not get decent results. And you are the one in the end who decides when you have enough.

Very true. I am happy for everyone who continues to incubate with success. I would like to offer my own little piece of advice, for what it is worth: if possible, and if you have the money and resources - try to hatch some rare, heritage breed, or endangered birds. The more diversity we have in the animal world, the better.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

We started with Styrofoam incubators and had some success but was not happy, we now have GQF Sportsmans and a digital hatcher and love them. We raise a lot of rare and od chickens including Bourbon Red turkeys and I agree diversity is awesome. We are just trying to fine tune it to save time and money. We have birds everywhere.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: HereDucky-- so sorryt o hear you have had soooo many issues with the LG. We have a thread here on BYC dedicated to the LG and it's management-- have you read it thru????? My first questions would b what thermometer are you using? ANd the secondis, is the room a stable temp that it resides in???

My first year I hatched just in my LG, then build a coolerbator to use as the incubator and used the LG as a hatcher. THis year the LG is both hatcher and incubator because the coolerbator is over flowing.

We are happy to help you out over on the LG thread. Since you already have them, maybe we can help you get better hatches.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/601352/little-giant-incubator-tricks/0_20


THe first thing I did was buy new thermometers. THe one with the LG is way off and needs to be calibrated to determine where 99.5 is. I suggest a digital that reads to the 10th of a degree.

 

[HereDucky]

Thank you for the advice. But I won't be incubating again. I am concerned about animal welfare, and just not able to deal with being responsible for so many little lives lost. As I have said - those who are able to incubate successfully should by all means continue to do so, hopefully making an effort to preserve rare, endangered, and heritage breeds.

 

[DMRippy]

Thank you for the advice. But I won't be incubating again. I am concerned about animal welfare, and just not able to deal with being responsible for so many little lives lost. As I have said - those who are able to incubate successfully should by all means continue to do so, hopefully making an effort to preserve rare, endangered, and heritage breeds.

I just saw you are in TN! We have a thread if you want to join us. Not sure where you are... never heard of that town.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/440277/the-middle-tennessee-thread/14310#post_13346259

 

[Runawaylobster]

We started with Styrofoam incubators and had some success but was not happy, we now have GQF Sportsmans and a digital hatcher and love them..

ditto

 

[Wasson6Pack]

If you incubators you don't want I could trade something for them, perhaps chicks, our something else? I am in TN too.

 

[Runawaylobster]

We started with Styrofoam incubators and had some success but was not happy, we now have GQF Sportsmans and a digital hatcher and love them. We raise a lot of rare and od chickens including Bourbon Red turkeys and I agree diversity is awesome. We are just trying to fine tune it to save time and money. We have birds everywhere.

this year i did weekly hatches and used the bottom tray for the hatcher, i had great hatches but if i filled the shelf for that week with two full trays i found that i couldn't fit all the
eggs in the hatching tray beneath, am i just being picky or did you find that out too?