Seeking first hand advice

[Dominion Link]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to decide on a smaller incubator to purchase. Something in the 20 egg capacity range. Must be able to handle chicken and duck eggs. Quality, automated and "bang for the buck" are the rest of my criteria. Seems the prices are ranging from $150- $300ish. Problem is, I don't have any first hand experience with any of the products available, and don't I want to go with a brand, and/or model, that others know to be cheap quality, finicky etc..

Looking for recommendations from you good folks.

Cheers,
Dean

[Bayvistafarm]

I like my Brinsea Octagon 20. Holds 24 normal sized chicken eggs... and lots of guinea eggs... and quite a few turkey eggs.

Its pretty self efficient. I just plugged it in, and it worked great. Course, then I had some bummer hatches. Clued in to outside/inside humidity and then did a few dry incubations, and greatly improved my successes.

I purchased the auto turn cradle. But... its somewhere in the high $400-$500 range. You can try to see if they are on sale anywhere. I got mine from Botkin enterprizes.... (I think thats the name), but there WAS someone in Ontario selling them, maybe someone else can chime in, if they know.

[kortispoultry]

Hi Dean, one of the best "small" incubators on the market is the Brinsea Octagon 20. I know of several friends and schools that own one and they swear by their little machines. You can buy a manual Octagon 20 for roughly $300 and a automatic for roughly $500. Whatever you do, don't buy a cheap foam incubator in my humble opinion, I know dozens of fanciers that have had nothing but bad luck with these and wasted their hard earned money on these! Good luck. Pete.

[Dominion Link]

This is great- exactly the kind of insight I was hoping for!

[madison174]

Brinsea, you can't go wrong. Autoturner is wonderful. I have 2 of the 40's, autoturn cradle, but manual temperature and humidity and have had no issues with them. A little more work, but compared to the styrofoam ones...well worth the extra money. cbotkin.ca sells Brinsea, great company to deal with, wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

[WLLady]

Lol. Well i have 3 of the styrofoam hovabators and love them...but they are annoying to clean. Whatever you do get one that is easy to clean. The brinsea looks good for that. I have 3 incukits set up as hatching boxes and they are okay for hatching but not much luck in incubating.
Again all in styrofoam boxes. Next one will not be styrofoam.

[Killerbunny]

I have 3 Little Giant Incubators and have had no problems with them BUT my hatching area is a very stable room with constant temperature. As Kathy says you must be very sure to clean them well.
Also I'm in a bordertown so it's very easy to hop over and get another (and another etc) it was cost effective for me starting out.
The best incubator in the world won't help you if you aren't meticulous stabilising. keeping records, cleaning etc. I like to set weekly so for me 3 works well.

[JimW]

I have no experience with the Brinsea incubators, they look nice and some people love them. I have used various models of Hovabators for years with reptile and bird eggs, and have been very satisfied with my success rate. Hold 42 chicken eggs, 120 quail eggs, not sure on numbers for duck or turkey eggs.

If I was looking for a new one I would check out the Hovabator Genesis 1588 with an auto egg turner costs around $300 CAD fom Berry Hill. If you are a cross boarder shopper at all, about $185 USD from Incubator Warehouse, not as good of a deal now with crappy Canadian Dollar.

JimW

[kenya]

I have the r-com 20 , does everything I just have to plug it in. Holds 20 chicken eggs, easy to clean.

[Flat Rock Farm]

Love my Brinsea Octogon 20's have 2 of them with the auto turner and humidity pump, just like the George Foreman grill you just set it and forget it!! Until day 18 when I take the the turner off and up the humidity. Very accurate and good hatch rate