advice please on incubators

Keachie · **Joined:** Mon Sep 20, 2010 6:31 pm **Posts:** 2

I need your advice please

I have 2 blue peacocks and 3 blue hens. I want to breed a few more chicks than last year which I let the hens hatch their own but that turned out a disaster. I followed the advice from a lady in Victoria that told me not to use an incubator and to let the hens hatch them. I wish I had NOT followed that advice now as most of the eggs didn't hatch and over half the chicks died or disappeared. I have joined up to the expert forum for the right advice on using an incubator and how successful they are? I would like to buy one ASAP but I would like your tips on using an incubator and which one I should buy?

bluepeafowl · **Posted:** Wed Sep 22, 2010 5:00 am

Advice is just an opinion sometimes based on experience and sometimes based on fear. The advice you got from this lady was probably based on fear as those that don't know how to use an incubator usually fear them. From my experience incubators are very affective for IB eggs and I use 2 incubators to hatch all my IB eggs. Incubators are use all around the world with great success if you take the time to set up the incubator correctly then it will work correctly. You can hatch dozens more eggs using an incubator then you could from hen hatched and that is a fact proven by thousands of breeders. If you buy any incubator then follow the instructions provided as they are different for each, but importantly set up the incubator days before you want to use it and make sure the temperature and moist air are both at the correct levels then and only then set your eggs. Without incubators they would be far less fowl in the world today.

parvo · **Joined:** Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:39 pm **Posts:** 735

Well said bluepeafowl.

It's all about getting organised before you actually need it so that it is running and ready to go. Any problems should be ironed out early before the eggs are laid. If you're inexperienced at incubation then talk to other breeders who use incubators all the time, particularly if they also have the same model as you plan to buy. Cheaper incubators with poor or uneven temperature, humidity, air flow or rough turning mechanisms are a false economy in my opinion.

It also helps if the room in which you set up your incubator has a fairly stable temperature. Avoid rooms with a lot of through traffic as the room temperature tends to fluctuate more particularly during very cold or very hot weather.

For the same reason I would avoid placing an incubator against a window.

Good luck if you decide to artificially incubate your eggs.

Parvo

Rick Jones · **Joined:** Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:28 am **Posts:** 3

This is just the sort of information I was chasing. Do you have a recommended brand to use? Is the more eggs you have in the incubator the less chace they will all hatch? Do you recommend manual egg turning or automatic egg turning?

Cheers
Rick

bluepeafowl · **Posted:** Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:15 am

The brand will depend on your budget but the cheaper units usually require finer tuning and are less accurate. The number eggs vary for each incubator so you should follow the instructions but to answer your question no more or less make no difference. Auto turning is better than manual.

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

I have one of the cheapo foam incubators and a good quality Brinsea 388 egg one. The foam ones are fine but there are some provisos.
- They must be kept in a room with a temperature between 15 and 25oC and they are intolerant of wild temperature fluctuations.
- I had better results with a hand turned foam one as the autoturn aparatus seemed to hold the eggs too close to the element & was not that uniform in temperature.
- put some water-filled plastic drink bottles in any spare space to act as ballast. This will help to hold the temperature at the right place.
- get a digital thermometer/hygrometer so you can get that right.
- follow the instructions from the manufacturer!!!

These days I use the good incubator to set the eggs & use the foam one as a hatcher. This way the good incubator stays very clean. I put kitchen paper down on the metal tray of the foam one, then after hatch throw the paper, fluff, dead eggs, egg shells, goop and poo in the compost bin. Then hose the foam base out.

As far as selection of which incubator to buy is concerned... they all seem to do the job & are costed according to how accurately they maintain temperature, their size & where they are manufactured. Do shop around however as the same incubator can be listed at quite different prices at different outlets.

Rick Jones · **Joined:** Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:28 am **Posts:** 3

With my budget restraints its seem the only incubators in my price range are the foam ones or the very small 20 egg plastic type

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

Can not stress too much that the foam & plastic ones are fine as long as they are in a room with temperature in that 15 to 25o range and no wild swings. Once daytime maximums get high as summer approaches, you can moderate the effects a little by opening up all the air vents, but the cheaper ones will overheat in summer.

Think about where you are putting it. Do you have a cool spot in a cellar or somewhere? Or someone's airconditioned office?

Ben n Deb · **Posted:** Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:59 pm

We've had great success with an old foam (40 chook egg) incubator automatic turner (till the thermostat died and boiled the eggs [smilie=a_doh.gif]

) , and also ok success with with a small plastic (12 chook egg) manual egg turner.

Personally, I've found that Muscovy ducks are the best incubators. If there is a pile off eggs, and they are laying, they will sit till either they hatch or pop :shock:

.

I disturbed a goose nest where there was only one egg, and she abandoned it. A young Muscovy which had just started to lay for the first time, found the egg and hatched it.

They are also a lot cheaper... 'cept of course that you have to feed them [smilie=a_chuckle.gif]

Good luck with your incubator!

bluepeafowl · **Posted:** Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:53 am

Yes the outside temperature is very important to any incubator that has minimal insulation or smaller heater coils

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