Can you make it pay for itself?
I research everything to death. Probably 100+ hours into looking at incubators.
I could not find a reasonable compromise between a $100 incubator and a $800 incubator. The in-between Chinese knock offs were to sketchy looking with zero feedback, the alibaba stuff was junk, and well, that was about it.
I looked at the $549
amazon one and said "If I'm going to spend $500+, why not spend $700 and be able to incubate 270 eggs?"
So, we went into it as a business, not a personal choice. If you can sell chicks/chickens, the payback may not be that far away depending on how many eggs you can incubate.
So anyways, we went with a Dickey. The temp is 100% auto, the humidity is also once you get everything dialed in with a refillable bucket for water. I talked to Mr. Dickey multiple times and he knows his stuff and stands behind the product. GQF incubators are more expensive and the reviews for them are mostly subpar.
What sold us 100% on the Dickey was staggered hatches. We set eggs on Monday, 18 day olds go into the hatching tray on Thursday, hatch out Sunday-Tuesday. Wash, rinse, repeat. EVERY week.
We've sold enough chicks that we are just about break even, should be in the black in about a month, more than pay for itself for the remainder of the 15 years we'll use it to hatch.
Hope that helps, good luck with whatever you choose.
