Affordable & Reliable Egg Incubators From $50 Up
If You Put All Your Eggs In One Basket, Make Sure It's A Good One!
By Damien Andrews
Which will come first for you, the chicken (or Guinea fowl) or the egg? It's a question you have to ask yourself before you start a flock of poultry. If you decide to buy hatching eggs and incubate them yourself, you will need a reliable egg incubator. Small flock poultry owners will agree that the single most important piece of equipment is the egg incubator. You can shop around for the cheapest poultry equipment, but the egg incubator is not an item to be selected based on its price.
There are several things to consider when you are selecting a new egg incubator. First is the size of your egg incubator. How many hatching eggs will you be placing inside at one time? Next, what kind of extras are you willing to add onto your egg incubator to simplify the process of egg hatching? Do you want an automatic egg turner or a built-in fan? Will you be selling your hatched, day-old poults as a way to make a living? If so, you should buy a larger, more automated egg incubator so that you achieve a higher successful hatch percentage. If you only want to increase the size of your flock, or sell a few keets to your neighbors, then a smaller, more affordable egg incubator would likely suit you just fine.
Affordable Egg Incubators Priced Under $50
The model 9200 Little Giant "Still Air" Egg Incubator holds about 28 chicken size hatching eggs. This egg incubator is made of durable styrofoam to help retain warmth and maintain a constant temperature. You can easily see inside this incubator through two 4" x 8" viewing windows. This affordable egg incubator comes with a solid state thermostat control, thermometer and moisture rings. Note: you will have to turn your eggs manually three times a day, if you buy this model.
Affordable & Reliable Egg Incubators Priced Under $200
The Hova-Bator, invented by G.Q.F. Manufacturing Co. over 35 years ago, is often considered the world's best small incubator. This incubator model includes a turbo air circulating fan, but it also accommodates various size eggs so you can incubate them all at the same time. You'll find it easy and fun to watch the progress of your hatching eggs through two small windows on the top of this unit. And it has a dependable and easy to use wafer thermostat control. This unit will hold 50 duck size or chicken size hatching eggs or 130 quail hatching eggs. Buy the automatic egg turner for an additional cost of about $50. You can expect to pay about $95.00 for this very popular egg incubator.
Affordable & Reliable Egg Incubators Priced Under $500
The Brinsea Octagon 40 DX is the Cadillac of fully automated egg incubators. If you have the money to spend, this is the unit to invest in. This egg incubator will hold up to 48 chicken size hatching eggs. It has electronic temperature control with built in digital thermometer, and two computer grade fans for optimum air circulation. You won't have to worry about reading and adjusting the humidity as the Octagon 40 DX does it automatically for you. The Brinsea Octagon 40 DX also comes with an automatic egg turner, which has no internal moving parts. Some useful extras found on this unit are the power failure alarm, wet bulb thermometer, and Spot Check high accuracy digital thermometer. Expect to pay about $500 for this high-end, fully automated, professional grade egg incubator. You can figure that a higher percentage of your hatching eggs will hatch successfully when you use this egg incubator.
Incubating hatching eggs is fast becoming a very popular hobby among poultry keepers. Incubating hatching eggs keeps the flock at the desired size, and also provides extra income for the poultry keeper when the poults are sold. Some incubating enthusiasts refer to themselves as Hatchaholics, and there is even a Hatchaholics coffee cup expressly for them.