The Moonshiner's Bootleg Incubator Reviews And Discussions

[The Moonshiner]

Tiny...

Ya it is.
Already hate the roller turner. The eggs have all migrated down the rollers and are bunching up against the end.
Do love the humidity system. I think. It hasn't done much since humidity here is usually in range dry hatching. You set desired humidity and the pump is supposed to keep it at that % so I'll see how it does during lockdown.
I've seen them before. I have incubators with them but this is an inexpensive incubator. Makes sense that these pumps could become standard on many others. I like that idea.

 

[The Moonshiner]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ootleg-hatch-a-long-old-west-outlaws.1639205/

 

[The Moonshiner]

It's hatch day with my little incubator and there's some pips and a zip.
The humidity pump worked well. I adjusted the setting when then went into lockdown and that was that. No adding water or even having to monitor it.
The rollers sucked throughout and continously piled the eggs to one end. It was a good idea but not effective with something egg shaped. I doubt I'll ever own another incubator with a roller turner.
Only 7 eggs made it to lockdown. I tossed 4 clears and one that was seeping.

 

[The Moonshiner]

It's hatch day with my little incubator and there's some pips and a zip.
The humidity pump worked well. I adjusted the setting when then went into lockdown and that was that. No adding water or even having to monitor it.
The rollers sucked throughout and continously piled the eggs to one end. It was a good idea but not effective with something egg shaped. I doubt I'll ever own another incubator with a roller turner.
Only 7 eggs made it to lockdown. I tossed 4 clears and one that was seeping.

If I disregard the clears it was 6 out of 8 that hatched. That's not bad.
Not my favorite incubator but I can't say it's a bad one. If you don't mind hatching small numbers and you don't mind putting the eggs back every day or two it's not too bad.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I have 3 incubators to comment on that I used in my hatch-a-long.
First the RCom Kingsuro 20.

I was pretty excited to try this one out. Never used a cradle type one before. I'd heard good things about RComs before but they seemed a bit pricey.
Found this one on Amazon on sale for a decent price. I believe it's the older model and an updated version had come out.
Anyways brand new out of the box I had trouble with the power cord and socket. It had to be and stay in a certain position to stay on. I'd assume this was an issue with the one I got and not a wide spread issue with this model.
After getting that straightened out it was pretty much set it and forget it. It seemed pretty consistent with temp and I like that the temp display is in red led and humidity in green. Makes reading a breeze in bright light or dark.
It has a humidity pump but during incubator the humidity here is closer to being too high then low so no need to add water. Come lockdown I couldn't get it primed and working.
Wasn't a big deal to add a little water manually so I did give up pretty easy on the pump.
I ended up hatching 20 out of 20 eggs. 100% hatch rate so along with no complaints I gotta say this incubator is easy to use and works very well.
It's also easier to clean then most of the others I have.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Next the Brinsea Octagon 20....

I was pretty anxious to try this one out too. This was the first cradle incubator I'd ever seen.
Brinsea was a well known brand to me and known to be really pricey. The Octagon has been discontinued so they're not easy to find. I came across this one on Facebook Marketplace.
Very similar to the RCom with one disadvantage I seen.
It just has the regular digital display so no reading from a distance and mostly no reading at all unless I shined my phone light on it.
It does have a cooling setting that most incubators don't have. I didn't use it though. Also didn't use its humidity pump. Being used it had some tubing issues and I wasn't sure how it was supposed to be hooked up exactly.
It was easy to set up and everything functioned well. I set 20 eggs and 17 of them hatched. 85% hatch rate.
Overall I liked this incubator and think it performed well.
The only negative for me is all of Brinsea's prices. I have two different models of theirs and both have a cheaper comparative brand that did slightly better hatching for me.
I'll still keep my eyes open for some used models though.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Next the WYD2ANG Mechachick

There's so many of these little and less expensive incubators out there I had to one.
I'm not a fan of any incubator that only holds 12 eggs but for the sake of research here I am.
I really wanted to prove my theory that one of these cheap simple design incubators could work well.
Quite a few like this model or very similar so I'd go for the cheapest I could find. Most range around $35 - $40. I stumbled onto this one and loved the graphics....

And with advertising like this.....

I caught it when it went on sale for just under $30.
It's super simple mostly because it has limited features. Basically plug it in and set the desired temp. That's it and temp is the only display.
One thing I didn't like is the no humidity gauge/display. One thing I really liked is the turner motor is on the top so the bottom can be easily cleaned without worry about damaging the turner motor like with many of the others with the motor mounted somewhere on the bottom piece.
It seemed to hold temp well and worked flawlessly. I hatched all 12 eggs that I set so 100% hatch rate.
This would be a really nice starter incubator for someone on a budget and doesn't mind only setting a dozen eggs or less.
I like it.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

probe meat thermometers. They've worked well but I've had several so I can check them against each other. Every now and again I've had one not match the rest so I just toss it.

You can calibrate those easy enough using ice water which is 32* you just grab it by the top and the nut and twist it to adjust. I was a cook in the Navy thats how we calibrated them.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Ok, so made it through all 86 pages and at one point had 3 incubators in my amazon cart, down to one now.... the Maticoopx
30 eggs seams like a lot for me though, but bigger is better right?

 

[FunClucks]

Ok, so made it through all 86 pages and at one point had 3 incubators in my amazon cart, down to one now.... the Maticoopx
30 eggs seams like a lot for me though, but bigger is better right?

bigger gives you options. You don't have to incubate more than a handful of eggs, but can do up to 30. 100% hatch rate and 100% survival is not guaranteed depending on your source of eggs and if they've been shipped.