So, I took the plunge and I ordered an incubator. I actually ended up not going with either the Hovabator
type or the gorgeous Brinsea, but a middle territory that, hopefully, will be the incubator love of my life. I got a Clear Top Turbo Fan Incubator from ebay. It has a digital thermostat, which, after having a Hovabator, was a must for me.Don't get me wrong-- Hovabators make a wonderful first incubator. I just don't think they clean-up as well as plastic models, and are fragile for those of us with young children who tend to climb on everything.
BTW: Brinsea is having an incredible sale on their incubators right now. With our budget, it was still out of reach for me, but I highly recommend investing in the Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco with the turner. Super nice!
I am looking forward to trying out my new incubator, which leads to looking into hatching eggs. There are some really great resources for finding hatching eggs online:
BackyardChickens.com
Egg-bid.com
Ebay.com (search: hatching eggs)
hatchingeggs.net/
gabbardhatchingeggs.com/
One of my favorite chickens off all time came from an egg I hatched from Gabbard Farms. They have really great quality chicken eggs.
Of course, that doesn't even branch into waterfowl and geese. But, first things first, I start with chickens!
Thanks for doing the research for me! I hope there's an incubator in my future, but I wouldn't have known where to start looking. Very helpful. I hope you keep us informed about what you are hatching.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I should mention that there are some really great small-capacity incubators for people who don't want to hatch more than, say, 10 eggs at a time. Some of these are completely automated so it's essentially set and ignore for 21 days-- which is nice!
ReplyDeleteWhen I get my incubator and eggs I will be doing a daily check-in on everything, including candling photos, so everyone can see what it's like to incubate eggs.