Too Many Incubators to Choose From....Help!

[sandspoultry]

You said you wanted one that will last so you need to look into spare parts also and the price of them.

In our experience the styrofoam incubators just don't cut it for incubators for the following reasons. They are very sensitive to changes in room temp (ours would change temp every time the heat or ac would come on) Due to the size it's very hard to do a staggered hatch, Just by being smaller and cheaper they don't hold up as well. (We used a hovabator for a year and had to replace the fan and power pack)

Now we use a GQF Sportsman, yes it costs more but here is a case and point. We had all the windows in the house open last night and it's in the upper 40's this morning, it's about low 60's in the house. I checked it this morning temp 99.8 just where it is set at.

Also, if you hatch our more chicks you can sell them. Our 1st Sportsman paid for itself in less than 6 months due to chick sales. I'm my opinion buy the best and put it to work, once you pay for the 'bator you can sell chicks to help your feed bill.

Steve in NC

 

[UrbanMama]

Quote:
Oooooo...Ahhhhhh....Ohhhhh....When I grow up, I want a GQF Sportsman 'bator!!!! LOL

Seriously, very nice looking incubator and something to dream about....unfortunately, my husband would divorce me if I spent that much on an incubator right now.


After much consideration...we ended up buying the Genesis 1588 with the auto turner. I still hope to make an
incubator with the kids at some point..... but running a home-made electrical appliance 24/7 for 3 weeks kind of worries me. We'll have to do it when we have a quieter month at home to keep an eye on things...maybe in Feb?

Thanks again for all of the wonderful suggestions and feedback...what a wonderful community here!

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

I love my Hova-Bator Genesis

All you do is, add eggs and water.

 

[smith2]

I have both a Brower Top Hatch and a Hovabator Genesis. The HG is fantastic for incubating and hatching, but the cleanup is awful. I had great difficulty controlling the temps in the BTH, so I put a insulating blanket on mine and it really helped. The BTH is great for hatching and the clean up is really easy. The two are just designed very differently and the HG is much easier to set and use. The BTH is really weird to put together and makes a lot of noise when it runs. Overall, the HG is probably the best, but what I really want is a Sportsman.

 

[Akane]

Today is the first time I've had my windows open all year aside from the bedroom which really doesn't impact the temp in the rest of the house. I run my ac on 78-80F all summer and then I turn on the heat to 70-72F all winter. There's maybe a few weeks in spring and a few weeks in fall that I consider opening the windows for a little while. So I really don't have much issue with changing temps. The only problem I had with my hovabator temps was that my house is small with lots of windows so there is nowhere I can put it that it didn't get some sunlight. There were 2 weeks in summer I had to make sure to open it late in the afternoon to vent the heat so it wouldn't go too high from the hot sun shining in all day. I just coincided turning with that time of day and it wasn't an issue.

It depends on your situation and what you want to spend.