Nurtureright 360

[LhigginsTN]

How do these units hold up? I have used the little giant styrofoam ones and a few from random vendors on amazon. With these I've had decent 1st hatch rates. 50-75% typically. But the second and third hatch rates are hit or miss. After that it goes downhill and I see rates of 10-20%. I believe that the unit begins to have issues with keeping its temp within range. More or less I would only consider using these again for standard breeds where I have a surplus of eggs and don't care about hatch rate. And I would use them for 1 hatching season and then toss them most likely.

I'd like to hear some reviews on the 360. I'm hoping that it holds the rates above 50% and can be used 10-20 times or more before it stops working well. I'm hatching nonstandard breeds. I have a few trios this year starting out again and I want to develop a system. What I used to do was keep 4 incubators in rotation. I saved eggs all week and every Friday night or Saturday morning I'd set a new batch.

I'm also considering using distilled water only and I always use a backup thermometer and hygrometer. For cleaning I use dawn dish soap. Its too risky to use anything with bleach or other chemicals.

 

[hammyanne]

Disclaimer: I'm completely new to hatching!

I think my experience thus far is aligned with what you've read about the units.

I have two of these units. I use distilled water. The first unit was a 72% hatch for me with a 100% fertility batch. I had several late quitters. The last 4 days or so, I noticed that the unit's thermometer reading was anywhere from 2-4 degrees off from my secondary thermometer, so it was a bit nerve-wracking to try to recalibrate the settings almost everyday.

The second unit I purchased has a steady reading aligned with my secondary thermometer, although I'm anticipating that it'll get a bit wonky the closer I get to lockdown. Coincidentally, I have the exact same amount of loss on the second candling (day 10) as I did with my first batch—6 eggs, but I had some nonviable eggs in this batch.

Good luck!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I have had three over the years with no issues. I had one that I used to hatch chicks, one to hatch ducklings and one as a triage unit for assisted hatches or weak chicks. I used it to hatch rare breeds that are prone to be difficult hatching with good success rates. I gave my units away only because I wanted to upgrade to a cabinet incubator. The actual onboard thermometer can be re calibrated which is nice feature to have.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I have this unit.
Pros:
Easy to set and program.
Auto-turn enabled.
Good viewing
External water ports.
Easy to clean.

Cons: ( IMO)
The lid is not hinged. Lifting it a bit to get eggs to candle can cause the lid to get off the track. Putting it back in place on the two minuscule notches is hard for me to do quickly.
The temp and humidity accuracy is not reliable.
Adjusting humidity is an all or nothing struggle when hatching thick shelled eggs, like Marans for ex. I thread sterile gauze into channel A and drape the tail in a water cup to wick- that gives me 30-35% for days 0-17. I pour water into channel A AND thread gauze into B to achieve 55% and adjust the vent to 1/4. Standard directions resulted in Marans or other thick shelled eggs (Marsbar) drowning. Or if using low humidity other mixed eggs lose too much water to hatch.
No hatching mat. Made my own.

This is what’s cooking now-day 20.

 

[BoundlessLove]

Have only used my NR360 for three hatches so far.
Bought it in an emergency situation.
A predator wiped out my daughter’s Blue Swedish duck flock.
My husband went to TSC that day after work and bought what they had which was the NR360.
Never used an incubator before, but we put in 14 ducks eggs which had been washed and some were ten days old. Left in the turner and misted/cooled twice a day starting at day 7. Two were infertile and one was rotten. 8 out of 11 hatched.

Next hatch, Shipped BR turkey eggs. I live in TN and these eggs came from NY. We had 8 out of 10 hatch. Turned by hand due to eggs not fitting in the turner. (Also Had 3 chicken eggs in same with turkeys and all 3 hatched). Needed a few turkey trainers. So 11/13 eggs set hatched.

Now, I have shipped CCL and SS eggs in my NR360. Am on day 13 today. Had to take out one egg was infertile. Plan to incubate duck eggs again soon to add more females.

My only complaint is the humidity dips at night when I’m sleeping. Haven’t figured out how to keep it from dipping other than getting up twice through the night and adding water.
This is against everything you read, but I use spring water instead of distilled water. I keep the vent all the way open the whole time. I do place a clean thick towel under the incubator when in use.