Name: Howie Wa. Invest in those you love and trust
I would like to hear of the names and types of bators that some of you have, and what you feel are the pro's and con's on them as well as the prices. Thanks for any and all input. Haystack
This is the Brinsea three egger, while it only holds three eggs there is an insert that allows one to set seven eggs if they are bantam and under. It is fully digital and once started just add water every five days and your good to go. It is very reliable and cost was a hundred forty bucks about 18 months ago.
Hi that is a nice incubator:) I have a little giant with an egg turner and I hooked up my own computer fan for it. It is pretty stable once it gets going. I usually start it up a few days before I am going to incubate to make sure my temps are stable. They are pretty cheap as far as incubators go. I know some people have problems with them. I think it helps to have it in a room that has a constant temperature. It holds 41 eggs in the chicken egg turner. I think you need a larger turner if you are going to hatch geese eggs or something bigger than a duck egg. If I decide to keep incubating eggs I will probably build my own out of a wine cooler so I can incubate more at a time.
~Lenette
Name: Howie Wa. Invest in those you love and trust
Hi Figgardengurl: Love the baby chicks in your pic, very cute. I also had a little giant, I used it for about a year but finally got tired of fiddling with that itty bitty dial for temp control. Gave it to a newbie and just ordered a new Brinsea, doesn't hold anymore eggs but it is fully digital so I don't have to mess with it. I wanted to buy a new sportsman cabinet model, but I was to cheap to spend seven hundred bucks. The brinsea will hold twenty four regular eggs or forty serama eggs, and I hatch mostly seramas. They sell very fast here and my little three egger is fun but not practical. It was great meeting you and hope to hear more from you. Haystack.
I've got a Hovabator and a Little Giant. I bought the little Giant because I want to see if it does any better than the hovabator... I'll let you know. I'd love to have a Brinsea, but just can't afford it.
Name: Howie Wa. Invest in those you love and trust
Hi Melissa, Tell me more about the Hovabator, is it styrofoam, plastic, or what? What do you like or not like about it. I also would love your opinion on the Little Giant. Also are you buying an egg turner for your little giant or turning by hand. I think I would have liked the Little Giant if it had been hinged together. Styrofoam really is not that hard to work with and I think it is poorly designed. Howie
Kenboy that is a very nice incubator you built. Really beautiful job. I like the heat strips idea and the fact that it keeps the temp more constant. Your egg trays are very nice too. Will they tilt automatically. If I keep incubating eggs I will prob build my own and use your heat strips idea.
It does not role the eggs, I did that several times a day when I was in production. I got out of the chicken business several years back when the USPS decided to stop shipping birds. I almost broke me.
I now only breed peafowl and use a few chickens to hatch the eggs, bators do not hatch peafowl eggs very well. I now just use mine for a hatcher. I breed several peafowl that look the same but carry different genes so I must hatch them in different trays. The one one I built will hatch 1,000 chicken eggs at a time and I only hatch 10 to 20 peafowl eggs at a time now. I do have two Brinsea 40 that I use at the end of incubation if I have more eggs than chickens to set them. The chickens do not always set when I really need them to.
Which breed of chickens do you use to hatch peachicks? Buff Orps? That must be really interesting, breeding peafowl.
I would love to get some peacocks and maybe a couple guineas, eventually, once I get my new chicken coops finished. My great aunt and uncle used to raise peacocks in NE. They have a huge farm on the river so they had lots of space. I remember them being really pretty and sometimes really noisy too lol.
Name: Cheryl Eastern Ky Truth should be everpresent.
I have 2 bators. They are both Little Giants. I got them at the TSC and paid $40 last year and $42 this year. I don't have the fans or the turners for them. I use the one I got last year as the hatcher and the new one just for the incubating. That way it stays nice and clean. I can hatch 2 dozen at a time comfortably with my "system". I'd like to have a turner for the bator. It only takes me less than 5 seconds to turn both dozen but it's inconvenient having to be here all the time.
Name: Howie Wa. Invest in those you love and trust
I just bought a Hovabator, with an egg turner. I am doing my first hatch with it right now, I am presently on day five and so far it has held steady on a hundred. I like the wing nut that locks it on the temp one it is where you want it. The humidity level also seems to hold very well. So far i'm impressed with it, but the final outcome will tell the story. Without the turner it holds 48 eggs and with the turner it holds 42.
I had a little giant. I liked it somewhat but I really hated the little dinky knob that set the temp. It made it difficult to increase just one or two degrees, or decrease, which ever the case may be. I ended up giving it away. The one thing I don't like about the little giant, and the hovabator is that there are no handles of any kind to life the lids on them, That makes it hard to hold the lid in place and turn the eggs at the same time. Styrofoam is very easy to work with and It would be very easy for the manufacturers to hinge the top and bottom and to put handles on the lids. I will soon put my own handles on it...Haystack. Next spring I will purchase either a Rollex or a GQF Cabinet model. That way I can do a couple hundred at a time. Hay.
Name: Cheryl Eastern Ky Truth should be everpresent.
A hinge on the lid would be nice. I used to bring home styro coolers from work when I worked at the hospital back home. I worked in the lab and all the stuff for the tests came in coolers. They threw them out and I rescued them for my DH's fishing business. Anyhoo, I put hinges on them with strapping tape. It worked great. i may try it with my older bator and see how it works. It'd hard to hold the top up with both hands and fool with the chicks at the same time.
I don't like that little knob either. I wish it had a thermostat but I know that only comes with big buck models. I only hatch a few at a time so it's not worth the investment even if I had the money, which I don't.
ugggg what do you do when the calendar you used to mark your start date on gets thrown away? for the life of me I can't remember when I put these eggs in.
They're Black Copper Marans, and a surprise. We have a little silkie pair.... the rooster is so small, we didn't think cross breeding would be an issue.... BUT, I have two really cute Silkie black copper marans.... so that means I can't hatch any more until I get him and his silkie girl either in a pen by themselves or sold. LOL
