little giant incubator

[fowlman33]

ok, about to start incubating eggs, small time !!! I have a pens ready to accept about 15 to 25 quail....I would like to go to my local TSC and buy the inexpensive little giant incubator to get started and see if this is truly what I want to do....I will be buying my eggs and was wondering about hatch rate in a little giant? I will have the fan and the egg turners so it should be relatively easy, right?

I am also going to try hatching some RIR's as well.....currently have about 50 RIR pullets, 50 WLeghorn pullets, and 23 mixed breed hens !!

Will the little giant handle my needs ?? I have been looking for a used Brinsea advance 20 with no luck !! And I am ready to start hatching eggs

 

[pascopol]

LG is nothing but trouble and bunch of dead embrios along the way (most of the time).

Anything else is a better choice (barring those 3 eggs toys called "incubator")

There is enough threads about pros and cons of different bators on BYC to make an educated choice.

Just read them.

 

[MustLoveHens]

I have a LG and a ReptiPro5000. The ReptiPro I got off ebay with shipping included for $135. The LG I got at my Blains Farm and Fleet (Kinda like a TSC) and it's the same simple model that TCS has. I think for the $43 bucks I spent I did well on the LG. The LG currently has 6 Asil eggs that I got through the mail and at last candling I had 3 good and 3 bad. 50/50. Very good for mailed eggs. I just set 60 Texas A&M Quail eggs in it and this will be my first go with quail. Im not expecting much mainly due to the fact that the eggs were mailed and not because of the simplicity of the incubator! Fresh fertile non mailed eggs should be very easy to incubate in any bator. However, with shipped eggs, the hatch rate goes down sometimes quite a bit. That has nothing to do with incubation but how the eggs are handled.
I opted to not get a tuner in either of my bators. Im not a huge fan of tuners since I personally have found them more trouble then they are worth. My Reptipro has a fan and such built in and is climate controlled and holds the humidity and temp beautifully! My LG is a still air and has no fan kit but holds the temp and humidity great. The one issue I had with my LG is that the first one I bought had a bad thermostat. I went back to the store to exchange it and got another one that works correctly. Setting it up was a breeze. If you decide on an LG, make sure you set it up a few days a head of egg setting. This way, if the unit is broken you can get a new one and have the bator all set to recieve eggs.
Start with some chicken eggs first and see how that goes as a test hatch. Then if you like it try the quail eggs.
I'd reccomend the LG- Why spend the extra money if you are not sure if you want to incubate? If you decide you do want to incubate eggs, then invest in a really nice incubator.

 

[ChickadeeMom]

i have an Lg and a mini bator and i currently have 48 eggs between the 2 and a broody. last hatch out of 24 i started with... i ended up with 17 fertile and 13 hatched. my lg is excellent!! i love it! my mini is ok...i have 2 in it and one has a blood ring the other is developing nicely

 

[airwolf]

some times it takes two hatchings
or more to start getting better hatches
you can get a hydrometer to mesure
the humidity

 

[Coldweatherbirds]

I've got my first hatch ever setting in a borrowed LG with a turner, but no fan. Everyone says anything else is better, but when I first posted there were several people who were supportive and actually like their LGs. Everyone did say using a fan was best. The best advise was to not put eggs in until the temp was stable for 3 days. It really does take that long to get it right. And it is absolutely essential that the room temp is STABLE. Yesterday the furnace went off and the room temp dropped 3 degrees and the incubator temp dropped almost 2 degrees before it was noticed. (Low of 99, so nothing catastrophic I hope). Good luck!

 

[Jennmom2three]

I love my LG now that I have it figured out....We added the pc fan to it with the egg turner. It does great!!!

 

[fowlman33]

great info....can some of you that use the LG share some trial and errors with me so I don't make the same mistakes ??

 

[SED]

You have to, have to, have to keep it in a room that the temp and humidity is stable in. If the outside temp fluctuates, the incubator temp will fluctuate. This is the biggest problem that I had.

 

[goatsoap]

I bought 4 Polish hens and 1 Polish rooster last year. Got an LG incubator and egg turner for Christmas. Set the temp for 1/2 day, then started putting eggs in daily as they were laid. Ended up taking two of the turning racks out and putting the screen on the bottom since you need to take eggs off the turner 3-4 days before hatching. BTW - if you decide to take out racks, you have to take the motor off of it and it all comes apart. Five minute job to get it apart and put back together. I have hatched around 60 Polish eggs. Had two that were not fertilized and two that died about half-way through the incubation, so far. The only time I had problems with the temp - cleanng out the brooder box and placed some paper on top of the incubator for five minutes, covering the air holes. Temp jumped up quickly to well over 100 - pretty sure that is how I lost the two, and very lucky that was all. I don't have a fan in mine. I just keep water in the three wells in the bottom at all times. Ran out of water once and had to give a warm bath to a very sticky chick, the membrane had dried on it. Put it back in the incubator for 3-4 hours and it did fine. I have not had a problem with chicks getting under the turners. Usually I find them sitting on top of eggs, wanting to know how to get the heck out of there.

The LG is great. This is my first experience hatching - or with chickens for that matter, and I love it. I have read all the stories about how unreliable they are, but not mine. I heat with wood, and the room temperature where the incubator is varies from 60-80 on a daily basis. No problems keeping the temp regulated in the incubator. Have never had to mess with it - it stays 99.5 all the time except when I open the lid. There are two red plugs on the top that can be taken out to reduce the temp but I have never had to.

I know I did a lot of stuff wrong, and had a LOT of beginner's luck. Cross your fingers that the luck does not wear off until I get the Tolbunt eggs out that I just bought. LOL

Good luck.