Is Hova-bator 1602n Okay For First Time Hatching?

[Minniechickmama]

That is one thing I have not had any problem with, even without the fan. The temp, once I got it set, stays very consistent. I am actually looking at adding a second Hovabator to my inventory.

 

[CluckCluck2]

Has anyone noticed how many times this bator turns eggs? I can't find the info anywhere.

 

[JD4570]

With the auto turner is one cycle every 4 hours.

 

[KandiandJerry]

1602n is a perfect little bator I use one but I bought the fan and put it in mine

 

[raymondjames]

yes my hovabator 160n ROX

 

[Faerytalefarm]

Sounds like a good one to start out with. Maybe I will try that one after using the LG this time.

 

[button momma]

so are you offing free bators

if you are i sure could use one

 

[ligermama77]

We just put 33 eggs in ours for my daughters 4-H project. It took almost a week to get the temperatures stabalized, but now seems to be pretty consistent.... within a degree. It's currently reading around 100 degrees. I have two different digital thermometers in it. I can say this cheap one from Hong Kong that I purchased off of ebay is by far the most accurate digital thermometer I've ever had. This is our first hatch and am crossing our fingers it goes well. We received eggs from two different local farmers with different breeds. I did have PC fan installed, but it made the temperatures jump up and down significantly so I unplugged it.

 

[Pele]

I got that exact model as my first incubation. So far it has been FAR more costly because of all the embryos it has killed. I think I've lost approxomately 200.00 worth of eggs on it. The autoturner will cause a temperature spike when you fire it up, so you can't let the eggs set still to compensate for shipping (like it goes up by 4 to 6 degrees). If you have eggs in when this happens, they're dead. I tried to combat the temperature swinging it does with towels, but those ended up plugging vents near the bottom. That earned me another temperature swing, another batch dead.

Then the pan at the bottom is super shallow, which means it overfills SUPER easily, which gets the eggs wet since they are just 1/4 inch elevated from the pan. I had a super fun time scrambling to get them dried, get the unit drained of excess water, THEN had another temperature swing. Another batch dead. Oh, but this time I was lucky and one chick made it out with a horrific injury that made me put it down (high humidity injury).


Done with it. It's sitting in my garage until I am done with my disgust to the point where I can actually look at the stupid thing again and list it on Ebay.

Trust me, it's worth your time to save a couple extra months, and get another type of incubator. In the long run you save SO much more money.

 

[SuperChiks]

this is my first time incubating!

I am about to order hova-bator 1602n with fan, digital thermometer and hygrometer, and automatic turner!
I am very newbie about this incubating process...

many people recommended genesis, but I cannot afford that much..
I am buying new hova-bator 1602n with all the accessories listed up there paying about $140 incuding shipping fee
I'm not going to hatch like many birds because I just want to see the hatching process and have button quails.

I cannot afford to build big houses so I chose button quails which do not grow so big.

My room temperature is fairly 70 to 80 degrees in most of the days.
I do not know about the night, so I'm going to test with the digital thermometer and hygrometer which shows lowested and highest temperature.


So.. all I want to ask is "is Hova-Bator 1602N okay for first time hatchers?"
I saw alot of forums saying that 1602N is worthless....but many also said that it's because of not stable room temperature.
Please be patient with me.. I am really new to these hatching process......

Thank you for reading my questions!

Hi! I can tell you that someone gave this exact bator to me and the fertilized eggs to "give it a go". This is my first hatch ever as well. This is what I did:

I set it up in a corner with no drafts and stabalized the temperature about 100 for at least 24 hours. I set 35 eggs - kept the temp around 100 tops 101 and turned them point side down 3 times a day. After about a week I candled the best i could and found 5 empty unfertilized eggs. One went bad a few days later and I took that out. Day 18 (lockdown) I went in with 29 eggs.

between yesterday and today I had 13 hatch. I lost 2. I had a bit of fiasco with the humidity so I highly highly recommend you get a hygrometer before you set the eggs. I'm on day 22 and have a couple stragglers pipping. About day 14 you may start to see a temperature change as the bodies are starting to put off heat - this is where the temperature got tricky. I had to stay on it constantly. Mine doesn't have the circulator and I think that is key from what I've been reading.

So...yes its totally doable - may just be a little more work but.... but really?... like we dont have our faces hovering over it 24/7 anyway!!!! Keep in touch and let us know how it goes!