Minnesota!

Coldupnorth, thanks for the offer!

KlopKlop, yep if it all goes well, I will have a turkey raising chicks, Which she is doing very well at and this hen raising poults, at least one.

These are the eggs the turkey abandoned after the chicks were hatched. I picked them up and moved them into the incubator. I thought they were dead, but it was worth a try to hatch them. There were three, the turkey never let me see what was under her or I would have pulled the turkey eggs out.

The one just hatched, They were suppose to hatch yesterday, but I suppose they got cool when she abandoned them and I lost a day. I have been keeping the humidity at 50% just in case the last few days, I came in for a sandwich and heard the noise in the incubator.

I went out and put new wood chips under "hussy" and rolled her last surviving egg out from under her, I then laid the 2 unhatched turkey eggs with her last egg. ( the rest have exploded, and yes it stinks near her) That is another reason for new wood chips. She rolled the unhatched eggs under her, turkey eggs and hers.

I then lifted her and put more wood chips under her an snuck the poult under. At first she looked like she was going to kick it out, She pecked at it once lightly, then lifted her wing to give it a place to lay. So I think ( fingers crossed) She is a Mommy. If she was not a hen I could handle and was not so friendly this might not have worked during the day. BUT I really wanted the poult to imprint the hen instead of waiting until nighttime after it had seen me.
 
So I found thisndeal being offered here on BYC
It gets the same mixed reviews as most consumer grade incubators. Any experienced hatchets care to weigh in? Do it look decent? Is it worth extra for turners?

ReptiPro 6000 Digital Egg Incubators- Exclusive BYC Price!
http://cm.g.doubleclick.net/push?client=ca-pub-8810354328358242&srn=gdn


I cannot get that link to work,,,


But I did a search on Amazon and read the reviews, You may want to do that before you buy it.

I would not have an incubator without a turner myself. just too much work and too much commitment for me.


The main complaints were temperature varied by 5 degrees, thermometer reads wrong and humidity is hard to control.
 
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Yeah it looks like the little 12v can coolers you can get. I suspect it uses a peltier cooler (since it can heat and cool) which can be hit and miss on longevity. They should handle the on/off cycles of the thermostat well though. The one guy claims success with it so I will see how it goes this weekend.

I am leaning away from styrofoam incubators and this one caught my eye. I've also been reading through a cooler-bator thread that has me intrigued. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...bator-how-we-did-it-and-test-run-ready-set-go

I have all fall/winter to figure it out since I don't plan to hatch until next spring

Edit: do you think adding another fan inside to circulate the air could solve the temp differences?
 
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It might, But when you add in the turners and the fan and everything, I would just get the hard case incubator from FleetFarm.

Mine work, sometimes better than others. I am thinking of getting a decent one next year, but not sure why. I have more birds running around here than I should already. A higher hatch rate would be nice, but then I would be done hatching in a month. I kind of like having them come all the tome.

For the record I an done hatching and have not set an egg in a long time, I just have the hatcher running still to use in case of broody mishaps. like the turkey that hatched today.
 
It might, But when you add in the turners and the fan and  everything, I would just get the hard case incubator from FleetFarm.

Mine work, sometimes better than others.    I am thinking of getting  a decent one next year, but not sure why.  I have more birds running around here than I should already.  A higher hatch rate would be nice, but then I would be done hatching in a month.   I kind of like having them come all the tome. 

For the record I an done hatching and have not set an egg in a long time, I just have the hatcher running still to use in case of broody mishaps. like the turkey that hatched today.


I have considered doing the hard case one and then modifying it to use my digital thermostat I used for moderating a fridge for brewing beer. It's quite accurate and measures down the 1/10 degree. you can even set the variance level. That would definitely help with temp spikes and ambient air temp changes.

But then at that rate, I could build a cooler one for less I think.

My end goal is to have enough incubator space to crank out several good sized batches of broilers in the spring and then occasional use for refreshing my laying flock / mad scientist breeding.
If I can get even one or two good broiler hatches out of it, it will pay for itself
 
I am a failure!

My poult/hen graft has failed. The hen went crazy on me. She started throwing the poult left her nest started singing the egg song and scratching for food.

I saved the poult and the other two eggs from her attack of wackidoodleness and have them back in the hatcher. I was out with her watching from a distance because I have had grafts that look good at first fail....


So unless the other two eggs hatch I will be stuck raising a single poult. Which means it will be a house turkey for a few weeks... and that means I will get attached to it and geez I hate the can of worms this is opening....



Anyone here interested in a single pet house turkey?
 
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