Incubator Frustrations

[Sam & Ella]

INCUBATORS I have an incubator problem: My pancake population is into its third generation of twin egg layers. Thirteen pancakes, nine females, with eleven eggs since last October. About a 65% hatch rate (despite my screw-ups). My incubators are a Styrofoam cooler with an old, domed “parrot egg incubator” heater over a hole in the lid. (Heat control no longer works, so I vary the depth of the vermiculate.) Clumsy! And I have a Zoo Med “floating” inside an aquarium. I have humidity challenges.

For more room, and better visibility, I almost bought a “mini-refrigerator looking” incubator. I like the see-through front door and the racks, and the backlit displays. I did not like the negative reviews about reliability and needless features.

Issues and questions:
1) All but one model of the mini-fridge style I liked had DC cigarette lighter port and cord for “car use.” I can see that function for use with a stationary portable car battery charger short term, but I don’t need DC because I have a whole-house gas generator. (My wife knew why I wanted the generator, and refused to pay for it as “a household expense.”)
QUESTION: Why would anyone spend the extra money on the “portable power” for an egg incubator? Sunday Drives?

2) Same “mini-fridge” styles –which I love capacity and ergonomics-wise—are available without the DC for a little less money, but all the mini fridges have “cooling” elements. Reading reviews, the heat and cooling act erratically.
QUESTIONS: What am I missing? Why need cooling for an indoor, ambient room temperature environment? (Give or take 5 degrees exterior max.) Fluctuations won’t affect the temperature inside the incubator anyway.

3) All I THINK I need is a container, with room for a water tray or “a moat,” with adjustable heat control, and preferably a fan, with easy internal view and access. (Racks appear useful. I can stagger the eggs higher or lower per age, but I have concerns about spending $200.00+ and have a fan burn out.) I have a pyrometer and thermometers and hygrometers.
QUESTIONS Am I stuck with my ugly and cumbersome-to-use DIY and the conventional Big Box types? (I can’t “fabricate' anything more than Styrofoam.)

Does anybody make a “decent-size” top quality one that simply has a fan, a legible temperature and humidity display, and adjustable heat for under $300?

 

[wellington]

@Tom
@Kapidolo Farms
@Markw84

 

[Sam & Ella]

Those inexspensive chicken egg incubators work to a degree, but I don't like the hot and cold spots.

 

[dd33]

If you want to keep your existing styrofoam incubator you might be able to retrofit an incukit mini into it. That will give you a fan to circulate the air and PID temperature control. They work awesome.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Back when I dealt with eggs and babies I purchased two of those mini 'fridge looking incubators within a 20 month period and they both failed.
Afterwards I had equal success with a Styrofoam HOVERBATOR and a 10 gallon aquarium set up as an 82°, 75% humidity incubator. The closed chamber aquarium type had the best ambient specs.
I kind of gave up after that.
I wish I had some helpful information for you. But I had failure after failure

 

[Tom]

INCUBATORS I have an incubator problem: My pancake population is into its third generation of twin egg layers. Thirteen pancakes, nine females, with eleven eggs since last October. About a 65% hatch rate (despite my screw-ups). My incubators are a Styrofoam cooler with an old, domed “parrot egg incubator” heater over a hole in the lid. (Heat control no longer works, so I vary the depth of the vermiculate.) Clumsy! And I have a Zoo Med “floating” inside an aquarium. I have humidity challenges.

For more room, and better visibility, I almost bought a “mini-refrigerator looking” incubator. I like the see-through front door and the racks, and the backlit displays. I did not like the negative reviews about reliability and needless features.

Issues and questions:
1) All but one model of the mini-fridge style I liked had DC cigarette lighter port and cord for “car use.” I can see that function for use with a stationary portable car battery charger short term, but I don’t need DC because I have a whole-house gas generator. (My wife knew why I wanted the generator, and refused to pay for it as “a household expense.”)
QUESTION: Why would anyone spend the extra money on the “portable power” for an egg incubator? Sunday Drives?

2) Same “mini-fridge” styles –which I love capacity and ergonomics-wise—are available without the DC for a little less money, but all the mini fridges have “cooling” elements. Reading reviews, the heat and cooling act erratically.
QUESTIONS: What am I missing? Why need cooling for an indoor, ambient room temperature environment? (Give or take 5 degrees exterior max.) Fluctuations won’t affect the temperature inside the incubator anyway.

3) All I THINK I need is a container, with room for a water tray or “a moat,” with adjustable heat control, and preferably a fan, with easy internal view and access. (Racks appear useful. I can stagger the eggs higher or lower per age, but I have concerns about spending $200.00+ and have a fan burn out.) I have a pyrometer and thermometers and hygrometers.
QUESTIONS Am I stuck with my ugly and cumbersome-to-use DIY and the conventional Big Box types? (I can’t “fabricate' anything more than Styrofoam.)

Does anybody make a “decent-size” top quality one that simply has a fan, a legible temperature and humidity display, and adjustable heat for under $300?

Hovabotors and Little Giants, available at a local feed store or online, are both reliable and proven incubators that are relatively cheap. I put electrical tape over all the little holes to reduce ventilation, and I keep the little odd water tray in the bottom filed up with water throughout incubation. I hatched dozens of tortoise eggs in these for several years, and then it was time for something bigger because I was running 3 or 4 of these and still running out of room for eggs.

I know of no reliable ready-to-buy larger incubator. Everyone I know, including me, build our own out of an old fridge or freezer. My auntie gave me this old stand up freezer. I removed the compressor and the rest of the "guts" to save weight, and then I installed a radiant heat panel on the ceiling and floor connected to a Helix digital proportional thermostat. The computer fans completed the package, and those run continuously at low speed to keep the warm humid air circulating. I have little tubs of water on the bottom on a little wire rack over the bottom RHP to keep humidity up.

For a long while I was incubating 100-300 eggs a year of various species through this bad boy:

 

[Sam & Ella]

If you want to keep your existing styrofoam incubator you might be able to retrofit an incukit mini into it. That will give you a fan to circulate the air and PID temperature control. They work awesome.

As usual, thanks.

 

[Sam & Ella]

Hovabotors and Little Giants, available at a local feed store or online, are both reliable and proven incubators that are relatively cheap. I put electrical tape over all the little holes to reduce ventilation, and I keep the little odd water tray in the bottom filed up with water throughout incubation. I hatched dozens of tortoise eggs in these for several years, and then it was time for something bigger because I was running 3 or 4 of these and still running out of room for eggs.

I know of no reliable ready-to-buy larger incubator. Everyone I know, including me, build our own out of an old fridge or freezer. My auntie gave me this old stand up freezer. I removed the compressor and the rest of the "guts" to save weight, and then I installed a radiant heat panel on the ceiling and floor connected to a Helix digital proportional thermostat. The computer fans completed the package, and those run continuously at low speed to keep the warm humid air circulating. I have little tubs of water on the bottom on a little wire rack over the bottom RHP to keep humidity up.

For a long while I was incubating 100-300 eggs a year of various species through this bad boy:
View attachment 367671

Great build there. I had the "hovabators" and found the temp control too meat-ax, and did not like the hotspots. I've had the Helix regulator with the probe that did not seem to work with waterbed or "pig mat" heaters (on an overhead rack on the terrarium). The water bed heaters are great, using that setup and some Home Depot 12" shelving. I put two Critter Cages together and center the heaters overhead. They mats last forever.

 

[Sam & Ella]

Back when I dealt with eggs and babies I purchased two of those mini 'fridge looking incubators within a 20 month period and they both failed.
Afterwards I had equal success with a Styrofoam HOVERBATOR and a 10 gallon aquarium set up as an 82°, 75% humidity incubator. The closed chamber aquarium type had the best ambient specs.
I kind of gave up after that.
I wish I had some helpful information for you. But I had failure after failure

That is helpful; very.