What Reliable Incubator do you use?

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

My genesis Hovabator 1588 is on it's way! Will be using it for the first time. I have heard A LOT of good things about them. I was sold!

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Sportsman incubator here. Not sure what year.... It had to been at least 5 or 6 maybe more years old when I bought it off a friend 9 years ago. It went out of use 5 years ago and into storage. I pulled it back out a month ago and ran eggs in it. The first test batch went wrong but it was due to Cami's eggs being used in parcelball somewhere along the trip nearly all had ruptured aircells. But everything I've put in since has developed! I got a great yield from the bobwhite eggs. Two ducklings are squirming in 2 of 3 eggs and all but 1 of the chicken eggs I got from Julie have little bundles of fluff growing inside. All this from an incubator that has to be 15 to 14 years old at the least. The price I say can be justified by hatch rate.

 

[MrsCountryChick]

Thank you all for the information

I've read the thread on the Miss Prissy homemade bator. Enjoyed all the information.

I 'want' to make one, but just wasn't sure on the 1st try at hatching if that's the way to go. I assumed most people who hatched in a homemade incubator did so after already hatching in a bought one & had the expertise of hatching to try something new. & not that it has anything to do with the internal components or workings, but having a styrofoam one just seems to be a poor material. I mean when it's not in use & being stored it could be easily crushed. (resembling a cooler & out of styrofoam it may not be recognized as a bator). I like the idea of the plastic cooler, so it's stronger. --See I have a mini frig that is in 'like new' condition that I was wondering about using. It has no coolant & is not working. Then it had me thinking of if a wine cooler would work? The ones that hold I think 12 bottles of wine inside & are the size of a mini frig (approx about entable size when I mean mini frig). I had been thinking a used wine cooler mini frig would be nice for the full glass door for viewing, that is already thick glass for insulation in keeping the coolness in when it's a frig. I also have an old styrofoam incubator given to me by a relative, there are no names on it so I'm assuming it a Little Giant. But the styrofoam is all broken or cracked, but the metal nearly circle element is still intact (it needs a new electrical outlet plug wire I'm sure--not gonna try this old plug in any socket, lol).

I seen a link online for a Large mini frig with a freezer that they used flex watt heat tape to heat with to make it a bator. I've also had it suggested to me that maybe a waterbed heater would work as a heat source, being similar in style to the flex watt heat tape. Both the flexwatt heat tape & the waterbed heater are seemingly safe heat sources to the plastic inners of a mini frig. See the instructions on how to regulate the flex watt heat tape was to get this approximately $30 reptile heat regulator. See you plug the flex watt heat tape (or heat rock when heating reptiles) into it, then you can regulate the heat, with the temperature determining probe that you put inside the frig to tell what the heat inside is set on, it cuts the electric to the heat source plugged in after it hits a certain temperature. If they use this to regulate reptile heat devices it should be okay to regulate for a bator heat device right? The info on this product says it has 2 outlets to control 2 heating devices at the same controlled temperature. Any ideas or advice?

You guys here at BYC are Truely a Wonderful group to go to for ideas or advice

Thank you in advance for your info