The Moonshiner's Bootleg Incubator Reviews And Discussions

[The Moonshiner]

For now....

Yep, set more eggs......

 

[Hedgeland Farms]

Yep, set more eggs......
View attachment 3608042

I've already been looking,
but I fear I am up to as many birds as I can...for their comfort sake .... ( though my friends think my birds live in a mansion...I am not convinced!)


However....there's always the option of building a third coop....

ME: honey, I've got to regain my title and crown...so I absolutely must hatch 30 more eggs, and build a third coop....

HIM: (insert finger gesture here)

 

[The Moonshiner]

After work I will be scrambling to do chores, set more eggs and do some rearranging to make space for my latest hatch.
Tomorrow, a day off I will do chores all over again, run in two different directions to get layer feed and chick feed. Then with any luck I'm gonna put up a new 12 X 12 grow out pen and rearrange chicks again.
Then I expect I'll have 2 weeks to put up another 12 X 12 pen before I'm out of room again.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Maticoopx..... 26 out of 27.
96% hatch rate
Candled the last egg. No movement, no internal or external pip.

 

[007Sean]

I'm getting sold on this idea.
I made a few various incubators back in my youth and I always thought the most important piece was the thermostat.
These were smaller units so you could get away without a fan. The heat source really just needed to be able to heat to 100° and be reliable to do so for 3 weeks without fail.
I got away with some stuff that wasn't the most insulated or best at holding in the heat but hey ventilation is important right?
You have me thinking. I see a lot of these homemade cooler light bulb incubators. Some look pretty good but I always cringe when there's no thermostat or a dimmer switch or something being used.
I always think d@mn throw a wafer thermostat in there and you'd be good to go.
I like the ease of use with this Inkbird. I've seen others but the plug in ability and the probe makes this pretty simple. Everyone should be considering these for homemade builds if you're not handy with wiring something in like a wafer or hell if you just want quick and simple.
Na I won't be building an incubator this season but this does give me an idea.
Ah, it's always fun when Moony has ideas.

Oh, I forgot to say you can also set the change in temperature for it to come on at 1/10 of a degree, so if you do that there is no noticeable change in the temperature. So, if you set it at 100° , then set the offset to .01 it will keep the temperature constant....learned that by trial & error.... .05° is too great with the cheap foam incubators, another thing I think helps to keep the temperature more constant, is the plastic shell. Not only easier to clean but also helps insulate.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Oh, I forgot to say you can also set the change in temperature for it to come on at 1/10 of a degree, so if you do that there is no noticeable change in the temperature. So, if you set it at 100° , then set the offset to .01 it will keep the temperature constant....learned that by trial & error.... .05° is too great with the cheap foam incubators, another thing I think helps to keep the temperature more constant, is the plastic shell. Not only easier to clean but also helps insulate.

Is the plastic shell inside and outside or just outside?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Got the NR360 loaded back up and.......

Brinsea Maxi II Advance with upgrade 24 egg disk.

 

[007Sean]

Is the plastic shell inside and outside or just outside?

Just the outside.

 

[The Moonshiner]

2 days in with the Brinsea.
I have the Maxi II Advance but I got the 24 egg quadrant disk.
Bonus to be able to hold 24 eggs and the 4pc disk is kind of a neat idea BUT..... I hate the turner set up. It doesn't function well. The eggs don't roll so well and every time it turns some end up wonky.
I figured for sure I would be constantly straightening eggs back out. Interesting enough it seems to turn the eggs one direction then the opposite direction the next time. In doing so after one turn several are wonky but then after the next turn most get back on track.
I've still been straightening them all out once in the evening.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Other then that.... out of the box I was suprised how small it was. It's sweet looking but compact and really domed shaped. The one thing with the NR360 is that at hatch time it seems to get really crowed in there and there wasn't a lot of headroom. Or maybe that's just me cause I haven't been used to that.
I can already see the Brinsea is gonna be much worse. I was thinking at some point I could just quickly yank some empty shells out. Problem is the Brinsea also has no lip what so ever so that plan may be a challenge.
I'll see how it goes.
The display and set up is complex. Lots of extra stuff that probably isn't necessary for the average hatcher. It has a cooling period setting. How often you want the eggs to turn and how much you want them to turn.
Cool features for a pro but a pita to get through the set up for a novice.
And no humidity display. What's up with that Brinsea? All this stuff but no humidity display makes no sense to me.
It has been doing well holding temps. Well according to the display anyways. I've checked several times and it's always right where I set it to be.