Would you roccomend this incubator???

[Kiwibird]

I have the first one you indicated. I have my first hatch in there now, eggs showing veining. Despite being fan forced, there is a variation in temperature from top to bottom, so you need to have your thermometer (not included) at egg level. I have put in two one litre bottles of water, with the eggs between them, and it now holds its temperature within half a degree Celsius. It was all over the place without the bottles of water. These are in addition to the water in the well to add humidity. I bought it from people down the road who have hatched out over 200 chicks in theirs in a very short time. They had to put theirs in a cupboard to stabilise the temperature, but did very much better after that. If you put it in a room with a stable temperature I believe you can have success with it, and it is easier to clean than a styrofoam surface.

 

[Kiwibird]

Just a thought, people saying it may cost more to run as it is less insulated than a foam incubator may have a point through the winter. However, our ambient temperatures at the moment are generally around 29 degrees C, so I don't think mine is costing me much to run just now.

Happy birthday. too

 

[Morri]

Hey thanks kiwibird!

ok i didnt think anyone else had one so did u cut the water bottle down the centre or something???

 

[Kiwibird]

No, I just filled two one litre bottles with water and lay them in their on their sides. Do this before you put the eggs in. Air changes temperature fast but water changes temperature slowly, so it just helps to stabilise the temperature against minor variations in the room temperature. They were slim bottles (milk bottles actually) that fit in the incubator lying down. If you had the incubator full to capacity, the fluid in the eggs would even the temperatures out for you, but I am making my first attempt with just a few eggs, while I get the hang of it.

If you look at the temperature and it has changed, usually the water well in the bottom has dried out, or the thermometer has moved. I am making more effort than usual to keep the room temperature stable by opening and closing windows and so on, and I think that helps too.

The incubator comes with basically no instructions, just a tiny paragraph on the outside of the box, so the people down the road have written their own instructions for the ones they sell. Fill the inner water well till day 18 and the outer one at the end of the hatch, that kind of thing - very much like a lot of incubators, but didn't come with the incubator.

I am going to build a brooder box soon, and I am thinking that if I design it cunningly, it can fit the incubator inside, with generous airspace all around, suitable ventilation and a hole for the electrical cord and so on. That way, if it does prove costly to run in winter, I can run it inside the insulated brooder box. Then I can take it out when the chicks hatch and use the brooder by itself. It's got to be at least as good as running the incubator in a cupboard, as was recommended to me.

I was definitely looking at the cheap end of the market, and that contributed to my choice. I also considered home made. In the end, I thought that getting the parts for home made around here seemed tricky, this had all the parts (except turner, but there are home made turner options on this forum) and if I had to make some home made modifications, I didn't mind. As it is, the first eggs are coming along nicely so far, and I am happy with what I have spent, being a quarter of what my next choice in incubators would have cost me.

 

[Morri]

Ok thanks for all that info - much appreciated!! Knowmatter which one i get i think all thatinformation will be very helpful in the future as i have never used an incubator before but instead my duck lol. I would have never thourght about the water idea and the cupbourd idea - you are thinking outside the box - hahahaha. So i will research abit more and see what conclusion i come to.... oh and by the way what eggs are you hatching - just out of curiosity!!!

 

[Kiwibird]

Two that were given to me when I bought the incubator - I forgot to ask what they were in the excitement of buying the incubator, but they look like silkie eggs to me.

 

[Kiwibird]

Insulation is becoming more of an issue now that we are getting cooler nights. Putting the incubator in a large cardboard box has helped.

 

[Kiwibird]

At this stage I have had hatches. I am confident with this incubator for hatching bantam eggs, given the extra measures I have used to achieve stable temperatures (water bottles for added mass to hold temperature, placed whole incubator in box to reduce draughts and add insulation). The two free bantam eggs that came with the incubator hatched with no problems at all.

I did a staggered hatch, adding some LARGE eggs that I bought from a roadside stall. I stood these in an egg carton (as I had for the bantam eggs) for the last three days, to contain shell fragments etc, when they hatched. This is not such a good idea. There is not enough space between the top mesh that prevents chicks getting near the fan and the bottom mesh that supports the eggs, it seems, to have the eggs upright, as one wee guy had trouble getting out of his egg after he zipped and opened it, because of bumping his head on the top. You also could not tip an egg carton instead of rolling eggs, because there is not enough space to have the egg carton on the diagonal, regardless of egg size.

These roadside eggs were not intended for hatching, but there was a rooster with the hens, and they were much cheaper than actual hatching eggs. One I removed with a blood ring. 4 have hatched. One that I know was fertile because I saw an embryo on candling has not hatched or pipped yet. Others have not hatched but were too dark to candle and may not be fertile. They are two days late today, but I will leave them two more days to see. I set a dozen. I only ever saw embryos in three.

So not a great outcome, but not terrible either, and some limitations to some incubation practices when using larger eggs.