Recommendation for an Incubator (Beginner!)

[lazy gardener]

Could you re-wire a table lamp if you had good written instructions? IF the answer is yes, I'd get the kids involved in a project to MAKE an incubator. Hubby and I have built 2, both are forced air. One has a bimetal thermostat, and the other has a digital. You can build a GOOD forced air incubator for around $20 if you are a good scrounger. You can get a free styrofoam box from a pet shop or a pharmacy. Or you can use a cooler as your box. check out Rush Lane Poultry for his many "how to" videos regarding building an incubator. Look for the video for the digital.

Check out this thread, post # 19. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/which-incubator-recommendations-needed.1222951/page-2

 

[The Moonshiner]

That looks like an upgrade to the POS they used to sell with qual eggs when I was a kid, LOL! the one I got with mine as a kid was such a joke. one small lightbulb, no way to measure humidity, a super craptastic paper thermometer, the thin plastic dome and a yellow plastic base, no way to adjust temperature :~() ... it was a miracle I even got one egg to hatch!

That was my first incubator too.
Set four eggs and hatched two. Quickly upgraded to a hovabator and started a quail empire.

 

[Birdinhand]

That was my first incubator too.
Set four eggs and hatched two. Quickly upgraded to a hovabator and started a quail empire.

are you, by chance, the Moonshiners son?

 

[The Moonshiner]

are you, by chance, the Moonshiners son?

Nope.
I had one of those back in the 70s. I grew up around chickens but bought one of those out of a magazine and that's how I got started hatching. Hatched a pair of quail then began raising quail.
Clear dome on top. Yellow dome with three feet on bottom. Put water in the foot part. Had a clear Christmas light with just an on switch. Piece of 1/4 hardware cloth bent at a 90° that you set the eggs on.
I admit I only used it once but did get a 50% hatch.
It is quite shocking now that that thing would hatch anything.
Sometimes on here I see post about people trying to hatch with a bulb and no thermostat etc I always think man you could add a cooler, thermostat and small fan and do so much better. Then I remember back to that incubator and that it actually worked so never know.
Funny how you can just get the basics and have a successful hatch while other times you can have a high dollar incubator and turner do everything right and still have a poor hatch.

 

[Birdinhand]

Nope.
I had one of those back in the 70s. I grew up around chickens but bought one of those out of a magazine and that's how I got started hatching. Hatched a pair of quail then began raising quail.
Clear dome on top. Yellow dome with three feet on bottom. Put water in the foot part. Had a clear Christmas light with just an on switch. Piece of 1/4 hardware cloth bent at a 90° that you set the eggs on.
I admit I only used it once but did get a 50% hatch.
It is quite shocking now that that thing would hatch anything.
Sometimes on here I see post about people trying to hatch with a bulb and no thermostat etc I always think man you could add a cooler, thermostat and small fan and do so much better. Then I remember back to that incubator and that it actually worked so never know.
Funny how you can just get the basics and have a successful hatch while other times you can have a high dollar incubator and turner do everything right and still have a poor hatch.

that's the exact one I had in the 70's as well, from some random catalog. and yes, for what it was, compared to all the bells and whistles of today's much better incubators, it worked, at least some of the time and it probably says more about the resilience of life to persist against all odds than anything else, especially considering how fridged the house I grew up in was during spring hatching season.

 

[jay873]

I feel like I'm 2 years old