Opinions on Incubators and Brooding Equipment

[checkenplucker]

Hello all,
I am curios to hear peoples opinions on incubators and brooders. I know that a lot of folks do DIY incs and broods. I would like to hear about manufactured incs and broods. What systems and techniques have worked. And what systems and techniques have not worked. Thank you for your comments.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I either let my hens hatch eggs or I buy chicks.
When I buy chicks I use a galvanized corrugated stock tank for my brooder. The one I have is about 7'x2'.

 

[checkenplucker]

Thank you. That is great info and advise. I appreciate your time to post a comment.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Thank you. That is great info and advise. I appreciate your time to post a comment.

Glad I could help! I should also mention that some people use a brooder that is easy to clean. When I would clean out the brooder with the chicks still in it, I was able to clean half, put new shavings down on that half, scoot the chicks to the new part, and finish cleaning the other half. I used a gutter leave scoop to clean out the old shavings, it took no more than 10 minutes to do. After the chicks are 7-8 weeks and in the coop, the stock tank is easy to clean with a hose or pressure washer. I lent my stock tank to a friend to start her chicks and she thought it worked great as well.
I hope you get lots of ideas! Everything works different for other people. I have also seen people turn stock tanks into raised beds and had the idea of purchasing a new stock tank every time new chicks are purchased so that I am forced to turn the older tank into a raised bed. That hasn't happened yet but it is still a possibility!!

 

[Willow2253]

I like the nurture right 360 incubator. It’s a great tabletop incubator that’s really easy to use, so it’s perfect for less experienced hatchers like myself.

 

[Mmanist]

I like the nurture right 360 incubator. It’s a great tabletop incubator that’s really easy to use, so it’s perfect for less experienced hatchers like myself.

I second this. Love my NR360!

 

[mcChicken39]

hi checkenplucker, im new to incubation but not new to chickens and them hatching the natural way. However i have just recently brought an incubator and i would have to say its not going well for me. I started with 40 eggs in it and as the days have gone by i have thrown out almost all of them (im down to 6 eggs). Now your probably thinking "OMG thats not good at all" "right!?".
well let me tell you where i went wrong IT MAY HELP YOU!. firstly i brought a cheaper version (Chinese brand) incubator. secondly mine doesnt have the humidity reading so i cant see if the humidity is too low or too high. which is also not good. thirdly after having the last 21 days turning out less and less sucsesfull i started doing research hahaha!
so my tips to you are buy a decent brand incubator.
have both humidity and temperature gauge on it.
research the chickens your wanting hatch as some chickens dont need 21 day. i have learnt alot in the research ive been doing recently.
good luck I hope you have more luck then me.

 

[Peristeria]

Hello all,
I am curios to hear peoples opinions on incubators and brooders. I know that a lot of folks do DIY incs and broods. I would like to hear about manufactured incs and broods. What systems and techniques have worked. And what systems and techniques have not worked. Thank you for your comments.

Before I realized that it was a styrofoam cooler with a heater and windows , I bought a Little Giant incubator from TSC (first time I had a fantastic hatch rate even with shipped eggs, 27/30, just remember to clean it or it won't be that good of a rate, yes 6/30 ). I made my own egg turner because after paying too much for a cooler, I was not about to pay too much for a turner, lol.

For the brooder, I used to use 2 big plastic buckets, 1 with the chicks and one without. When I cleaned I scooted them all over to the empty one and cleaned the gross one. Now I'm currently making one with a heating pad rather than a lamp so they might not be scared of the dark when they head outside (idk if this happens with chickens but my quail seemed really scared of the dark). Something that did not work with my brooder is that all the bedding would get into my waterer, which is just a mason jar screw on bottom thing. To fix this (I have quail) , once they got big enough, I added a bowl/stand thing to the bottom of it to hold up and it was sooo much better.

Good luck with your hatch!!!

 

[checkenplucker]

hi checkenplucker, im new to incubation but not new to chickens and them hatching the natural way. However i have just recently brought an incubator and i would have to say its not going well for me. I started with 40 eggs in it and as the days have gone by i have thrown out almost all of them (im down to 6 eggs). Now your probably thinking "OMG thats not good at all" "right!?".
well let me tell you where i went wrong IT MAY HELP YOU!. firstly i brought a cheaper version (Chinese brand) incubator. secondly mine doesnt have the humidity reading so i cant see if the humidity is too low or too high. which is also not good. thirdly after having the last 21 days turning out less and less sucsesfull i started doing research hahaha!
so my tips to you are buy a decent brand incubator.
have both humidity and temperature gauge on it.
research the chickens your wanting hatch as some chickens dont need 21 day. i have learnt alot in the research ive been doing recently.
good luck I hope you have more luck then me.

Thank you so much for your reply. It was very helpful!

 

[checkenplucker]

Before I realized that it was a styrofoam cooler with a heater and windows , I bought a Little Giant incubator from TSC (first time I had a fantastic hatch rate even with shipped eggs, 27/30, just remember to clean it or it won't be that good of a rate, yes 6/30 ). I made my own egg turner because after paying too much for a cooler, I was not about to pay too much for a turner, lol.

For the brooder, I used to use 2 big plastic buckets, 1 with the chicks and one without. When I cleaned I scooted them all over to the empty one and cleaned the gross one. Now I'm currently making one with a heating pad rather than a lamp so they might not be scared of the dark when they head outside (idk if this happens with chickens but my quail seemed really scared of the dark). Something that did not work with my brooder is that all the bedding would get into my waterer, which is just a mason jar screw on bottom thing. To fix this (I have quail) , once they got big enough, I added a bowl/stand thing to the bottom of it to hold up and it was sooo much better.

Good luck with your hatch!!!

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your insight. Sounds like what you're doing it working. Again, thank you for the sage advice.