What is the best, but cheapest small incubator?

[Nicole01]

I have a beautiful standard Cochin frizzle girl and my neighbor has a barred rock boy. My neighbor wants a frizzle and I would like 2 more hens. I figure they would be decent layers with the BR genes and be beautiful to look at. Both chicks are very calm and friendly. We have come up with this idea to breed the two and keep the chicks! I personally would like to hand raise them due to more friendly chicks and the fact they are so darn cute.

I'm just now reading up on all of this and I want to do it right. I have no idea how many fertile eggs I will have since we are only breeding one chicken of mine. I have no idea how often she will lay either, as this is my first flock. I'm assuming I will only get a few eggs to hatch at a time. I then can store the incubator for later use.

I've searched Amazon.com, but it seems like those incubators have bad reviews. I'm looking for a smaller one that can fit 6-10 eggs? I'm not really sure on the exact sizes they come in.

The best part is that hubby okay'd me doing this!!! We were planning on breeding sometime this winter or spring. Hopefully winter, I'm keeping it pretty warm in the coop, so my girls keep laying. Thanks in advance.

Here's my girl at 14 weeks.

 

[youngenbreeder]

I dont no about the best but one of the cheapest would have the be the Hovabator 1602N. i just bought one with turner and added a comp fan and they are pretty decent.

 

[georgiagail]

I do like my Brinsea mini advanced. Holds 7 eggs; easy to set up and forget. Just hatched six out of six eggs.

I purchased mine through their site (www.brinsea.com).

Gail

 

[Gypsy07]

Best and cheapest are two different things! Both versions of the Brinsea mini (with/without digital temp control and automatic turning) are excellent little bators but for the price of the Brinsea which only holds 7 eggs you could have the Hovabator which can hold something like 40 eggs. I don't have one myself but reading what folk on here say about them, I'd say they sound just about as good. The price difference is mostly because the Brinsea is hard moulded plastic and the Hovabator is more fragile styrofoam which will start to look a bit tatty but still be perfectly useable after a dozen hatches and scrubbings out. Obviously you don't want to hatch 40 eggs to begin with but trust me, you soon will!

Brinsea bators are absolute top quality, they're very reliable and pretty much the best small bators you can buy. And their customer service is excellent too. I don't know about the company that makes the Hovabator but going by what folk on here say, it's a pretty reliable bator too...

Your frizzle is very pretty btw

 

[yinepu]

Brinsea has a coupon right now too.. from their facebook page:

"Use FBME0611 at checkout before July 17 and save 10% off ALL Brinsea products even those already on sale! Be sure to enter it as above - the first 4 as capital letters and the last four as digits."

 

[Islandmom511]

Quote:
So I have a question...I have the cheapo "chickubator" and the brinsea is obviously the Cadillac of bators (for the price), but it is similar in size to the chickubator. What do you do when its time to hatch? Do they have room in there to hatch? I feel like mine is so small they need to be moved to something bigger so they can wiggle out (but I don't want to move them too close to lockdown). ***First time hatcher all advice accepted!***

 

[georgiagail]

Yep; there's room for them to hatch out. So far, I've never had all eggs hatch at the same time. At the most I've had two chicks hatch out at the same time and they seem to have enough room until I can get them out.

When I do find them, I move them to my Water Nanny for the first 12 to 24 hours.

I initially used the Water Nanny when I raised Lady Gouldian finches. It's two critter carriers with an aquarium heater placed in the bottom one (either glued in through a hole in the side or a submersible heater used). Water is added to the bottom carrier to cover the heater which is then turned on. The top carrier is placed in the bottom one to the point where the warm water is allowed to run up the sides (but not over the top). I like to leave them in there so they can dry out and still stay warm before they're moved to the bird cage I used as my brooder.

I like the Brinsea mini advanced because I can set up and then not worry about turning eggs or stopping the process within three days of hatching (you can program the Brinsea to do that).

For small batches (and that's really all the room and time I have to do that) it's great.

Gail

 

[Nicole01]

Thank you very much everyone! I'd like to have the incubator that turns the eggs, but there is a big price difference.