Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Someone I know is offering their Little giant Deluxe incubator with fan, egg turner and quail rails for sale.
Does anyone have experience with Little Giant incubators? Are they decent, or not worth buying?

They are all I use and Jan is using one at the moment. The trick for any incubator is a room with reasonably stable temperature.

Thanks, KB. Now I just have to ask myself if I will be doing enough incubating to make it worth buying my own.

Yes! I use one (forced air) borrowed from KB for incubating, and a still air Little Giant for hatching. The one from KB has analog temperature control and is VERY reliable, I only check temperature when turning eggs (I turn by hand) and temp has never fluctuated in a way that would cause any concern, and stays very even throughout the unit. It lives in a large upstairs hallway closet, no windows, no drafts. It's a gem. The hatcher I use is identical except for no fan and the controls and readout is digital...the readout is NOT accurate nor reliable, especially humidity, but I use my own "weather station" to watch what's going on in there anyway and adjust as needed. Also, no fan means there is a hot spot near the "element" (wrapped wire) and edges and corners are much cooler...so eggs must be moved around a couple times a day even when not turning. But these suckers have hatched thousands of eggs reliably since I started using them, and at only 40 watts each, not huge power hogs.

Jaye wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 01, 2018 12:24 pm

Thanks, KB. Now I just have to ask myself if I will be do enough incubating to make it worth buying my own.

Yes. Yes, you will, if you can convince hubby to stop pickling eggs for a couple of weeks and then once hatched, within a few short weeks you will have enough quail eggs to eat, pickle, AND incubate. Theoretically

Oh my giddy aunt, why on earth did I think I would get a different answer from all you enablers?!
Okay, I guess it's a go ...

Well my experience is different, I wouldn't touch one.

What was your experience with a Little GIant, @kenya ? Difficult to maintain humidity? Temperature/thermostat problems? egg turner malfunction?

Egg turner worked keeping humidity constant was a nightmare. I think I had 2 hatch out of 60 eggs. My nephew had none hatch, my neice had none hatch. I suppose if you had the right room where humidity and temp were fairly constant it would work. Obviously it works well for some.

Maintaining humidity is a non-issue where I live...it's always humid, except in the coldest months, and in the winter I always have a kettle on the stove anyway. I don't add water, EVER, and still get the odd wet hatch especially in July. If relative humidity stays over 55% for long, I know I'll get at least one drowning, or goopy chick that can't hatch on it's own. If you live in a dry area, or use forced air heating (just woodstove here...we have propane furnace as backup but rarely use) or run a dehumidifier in your basement, your results may vary

Thanks, @kenya , that's really good information to know. My biggest takeaway from this is to find a room with fairly constant temperature and humidity. So I'm commandeering the small spare bedroom, where a lot of hubby's stuff currently resides. lol.