The Incubator Story

Dare I tell you that I’ve ordered yet another incubator? Don’t get excited! Don’t call in the men in their clean white coats just yet . . please hear me out!

The first incubator I ordered was the Farm Innovators 4200.

It had decent, though not great ratings. It has the egg turner and the fan. The problem with it is that it does not have a thermostat but you have to keep tweaking the little temperature knob, which is so sensitive that I barely touch it and it raises or lowers the temp 3 or 4 degrees and with eggs, they really need to be kept at very close to the exact temp (99.5º).  I am honestly checking on it and making adjustments 20 or more times per day and getting up 5 or 6 times during the night. I called the company this morning and the guy was nice but not very encouraging. He pretty much agreed with all the problems I’m having and had no solution so this baby is going back as soon as the new one arrives.

The house temp fluctuates a little. We don’t need the heat or the air on right now. It may be 65º in the house early in the morning when the outside temp is in the 40’s, and during the early afternoon, when the outside temp is in the mid 80’s, my inside temp may be 74º.  At neither point do we need the air or the heat but those fluctuations in the house temp are affecting the temp in these incubators and without them having any kind of thermostat . . it’s just frustrating as heck.

The second incubator .. well, for the sake of keeping myself out of trouble, let’s not talk about the second one and let’s just skip to the third one. I will say that second incubator has a thermostat and is pretty much “stick the eggs in and 21 days later, get the chicks out!”  It even knows that on day 18, it should stop turning the eggs! Too bad it only holds 7 eggs and too bad the bigger model would require a mortgage on the house to afford it.

The third one is this setup.

It’s the Little Giant with the egg turner and we added the fan. It’s almost the exact same setup as the Farm Innovators but I’m having much better luck keeping the temp regulated. This one is also much easier to get water into the “trough” for keeping the humidity right.

This morning I was about at my wits end with that Farm Innovators incubator so Vince got involved. He did some research and we ended up going with the Hova Bator Genesis 1588.

I didn’t get this one in the first place because it’s a little more expensive and it wasn’t Prime and I was too cheap to pay for shipping but . . I’m sorry I didn’t. This is the incubator that was recommended more to me by other hatchers, it has a digital thermostat and is preset at 99.5º and can be adjusted but shouldn’t need any adjustments. I ordered it through Incubator Warehouse and the guy I spoke to was so nice and helpful. Isn’t it a sad state when we’re surprised that we get a nice and helpful person on the phone?

He told me that the incubator would probably go out tomorrow but when I explained my problem with the current incubator, which is full of eggs, he told me he would make sure it got shipped today and within about 10 minutes of completing the transaction, I received the tracking info that it had been shipped.

When it arrives, I’ll let it heat up and stabilize and make sure it’s working correctly, then transfer the eggs from the first incubator and hopefully . . everything will go smoothly. This is the incubator that has the black copper marans in it. I’m going to be so sad if those don’t hatch. But, if they don’t hatch, I’ll find some more and try again.