The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: steve_in_devon on April 23, 2013, 01:21:28 pm
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My 9 year old son is wanting to start selling bantams. He really loves our chickens that we have and his favourite is his Dutch bantam. He is wanting to sell Sablepoots.
Does anyone have any advice on good cheap incubators, as he doesnt want huge set up costs.
Any avice on which Bantams sell well aswell would be great.
Thanks
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Hi Steve. I know its not an all singing all dancing machine, but last week I bought a brand new Eco 20 semi automatic incubator. I've got plenty of time on my hands to manually turn the machine and if I'm honest, I enjoy the ritual.
Its what I could afford and I'm also working on the theory that there are less moving parts to go wrong with this particular model
I got it for a £109-00 plus just under £8-00 carriage.
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb334/kcooper2011/zz1.jpg) (http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/kcooper2011/media/zz1.jpg.html)
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb334/kcooper2011/zz2.jpg) (http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/kcooper2011/media/zz2.jpg.html)
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb334/kcooper2011/zz3.jpg) (http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/kcooper2011/media/zz3.jpg.html)
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb334/kcooper2011/zz4.jpg) (http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/kcooper2011/media/zz4.jpg.html)
It takes 24 hens eggs and would fit quite a few more bantam eggs. PM me if you require the suppliers details, I found them on the internet.
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Plenty of choice on this website:
http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/egg-incubators.html (http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/egg-incubators.html)
I used to have a Brinsea but found the hatch rate unreliable. I don't like having to manually turn eggs (although you can buy a cradle for them) so I bought another make and have had very good hatch rates from it. It's this one:
http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/213.html (http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/213.html)
I'm really pleased with it. As the bumph says, it's a 'fully automatic, fan assisted egg incubator. It has a plastic base for easy cleaning and a clear Perspex lid for excellent visibility'.
The visibility on it is excellent, great for kids to watch the hatch..
BUT
Don't forget you will need brooding equipment too, for example:
http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/559.html (http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/559.html)
and
http://ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Brooders_and_Poultry_Brooder_Cages.html (http://ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Brooders_and_Poultry_Brooder_Cages.html)
plus feeders and drinkers:
http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/feeders-and-drinkers.html (http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/feeders-and-drinkers.html)
and feed, and bedding........
I bought the complete brooder package (plus the heat lamp and a couple of bulbs), similar to second item down on the Ascott link). It has served me well. However, that little lot above has added up to roughly £350 so far............
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NB: I can't remember who exactly I made the purchases from, I've just used the above links to show you the kit I have.
Let us know what you decide to go for............
:chook: :&>
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We've got most Brinsea models listed here:
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/shop/poultry/incubators-brooders/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/shop/poultry/incubators-brooders/)
Wells Poultry (http://shop.accidentalsmallholder.net/goto/wells_poultry/) are usually very competitive on price and you can occasionally get a bargain on eBay.
HTH,
Dan
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I recently bought the brinsea incubator starter pack 1 for £125 from chickencoops4u. Unfortunately i think they have sold out at the moment but they were the cheapest i found.
The incubator is only little, a 7 egg one and its manual turn (although the incubator pack 2 comes with the auto turning version for a bit more money i think).
The pack includes an egg candler and 20 chick electric brooder.
Ive been dead impressed with the whole set, hatched my first lot of quail 2 weeks ago and they are doing really well in the brooder. No problems at all. Only that i did end up buying a hygrometer from ebay, it only cost a couple of quid and was for reptiles. It fit inside the incubator no problem and it meant i could keep an eye on humidity as well as temperature.
Good luck with it, my three girls absolutely loved watching the chicks hatch and watching them grow up in the brooder, great for kids i think. :thumbsup:
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I used to have a Brinsea but found the hatch rate unreliable. I don't like having to manually turn eggs (although you can buy a cradle for them) so I bought another make and have had very good hatch rates from it. It's this one:
http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/213.html (http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/products/details/213.html)
I'm really pleased with it. As the bumph says, it's a 'fully automatic, fan assisted egg incubator. It has a plastic base for easy cleaning and a clear Perspex lid for excellent visibility'.
The visibility on it is excellent, great for kids to watch the hatch..
Interesting - what did you do about maintaining the humidity on this machine?
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Steve did say that he wanted a " Good cheap incubator" I got mine from this company and it was the cheapest supplier of this particular model that I could find. http://countryfayre-countrystore.co.uk/incubators-hatchers/brinsea-product-range/cat_13.html (http://countryfayre-countrystore.co.uk/incubators-hatchers/brinsea-product-range/cat_13.html)
The Wells poultry link appears to be defunct.
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Steve did say that he wanted a " Good cheap incubator" I got mine from this company and it was the cheapest supplier of this particular model that I could find. http://countryfayre-countrystore.co.uk/incubators-hatchers/brinsea-product-range/cat_13.html (http://countryfayre-countrystore.co.uk/incubators-hatchers/brinsea-product-range/cat_13.html)
They're a wee bit more expensive than Wells once you add postage (at least to my neck of the woods).
The Wells poultry link appears to be defunct.
Oops, fixed now, thanks. :)
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If you don't mind a bit of manual adjusting and fiddling probably the cheapest incy that'll take a meaningful amount of eggs is the Hovabator. I think the basic model is about 70 quid.
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Hi,I think the temp fluctuates to much in the hover-bater.Every one I know who has had one has had very poor hatches from them.
You would me much better of doing as sagested and buying the brinsea octagon eco 20.Its a very simple and reliable machine.
Graham.
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Rightly or wrongly, Ive been warned off the hovabator by a number of experienced people.
I've been told that you'll possibly get a good hatch the first time you use it but that after the first hatch, polystyrene isn't the easiest surface to sanitise. It made sense to me and I've chosen not to go for this make or model.
There are lots of cheap incubators out there. Many of them are Chinese in origin and again, I've been warned off them and in this instance, I've been told that spare parts tend not to be readily available.
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At the end of the day you gets what you pays for. And a lot will depend on how many eggs you want to hatch. I know we're talking about a kid's project here but there isn't much point in the tiny 6 or 7 egg incubators if they want to actualy have any birds to sell. I've had great results from my r-com suro but I wouldn't buy another one as they've gone up in price a lot since I got mine. It's also too small for my needs at 24 eggs. Regarding the hovabator, or any manually adjusted still air set up, they do need a lot of fiddling with you can't just stick the eggs in and forget them. But they can give great results if you know what you're doing. Also they are a good way to learn the ins and outs of incubating eggs. You could buy an all singing all dancing fully auto job but you won't learn about how eggs are incubated or what effect things like temp and humidity have on the outcome.
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We've got the little round Brinsea one (up to 10 eggs I think?). Not sure on the model number but great results so far. Any failures have been due to infertile eggs or our mistakes. We put 6 gold top eggs in and got 6 chicks out. Great little machine.
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Our experience says avoid the cheaper makes. We bought a Covatutto years back and it never worked right, after a couple of weeks the fan would stop and we lost several batches of chicks. It went back to the manufacturer to be fixed but still did the same.
So we bought a Brinsea and it never let us down. :)
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I have an R-Com 20 which has been pretty good although they have stopped making my model, the new one doesn't need the humidity sponges that mine does at about £6 a time.
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I've had very good reports of the R-Com.
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I have an R-Com 20 which has been pretty good although they have stopped making my model, the new one doesn't need the humidity sponges that mine does at about £6 a time.
I dunno what the sponges are like on that model but on the suro I use a new, folded up J cloth instead. Works just the same.
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il go for dan brinsea you can fix all parts and good and stock Sablepoots lemmon makes good money
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I've just bought a Brinsea and my only problem has been with the cradle which seems to be getting stuck. It's been back, repaired, sent back and still not right so I've sent it back again. They are definitely doing their best to sort it which is great. On the downside, I could do without having to turn the whole thing manually just as I've loaded it up with eggs when I've paid to have them autoturned.
H
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iv seen this problem put less eggs in and it will turn had the 40s and got rid
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I was testing it with three goose eggs (infertile) just to see so it definitely wasn't overloaded. They did keep asking me how many eggs I had in it. Still annoying - if they say it should turn the full incubator, it should cope with the full load.
H
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I know another member has 40's and says the cradle labours to turn when full ???
We've had rcoms...inc suro......just sold 2 and retained one never had a problem with them and good hatches limited to 20 eggs less you buy the 50 which we wouldn't again
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I have an R-Com 20 which has been pretty good although they have stopped making my model, the new one doesn't need the humidity sponges that mine does at about £6 a time.
This was the first incubator I got and have never been impressed. Had loads of problems with both temp and humidity control. The temp in mine is hugely unreliable and despite regular calibration constantly drifts up leading to very early hatches and high mortality due to 3-4 day early hatches.
Recently bought the Brinsea Octo 20 automatic model with the turning cradle and have to say have been impressed. Better hatch rate, less problems with weak ones and only one trying to hatch days early! And almost half the price of the R-Com.
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Hi the turning cradle on the Brinsea octagon 20 dose look like it was designed by Heath Robinson,but I have not had any problems with mine.
Graham.
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Hi all, thanks for the advice on the incubators. Will keep an eye out for specials, but we will see how he goes with the selling of the Pekin Bantams that our hen is sitting on at the moment.
They should be lovely little cross Pekin's. Hopefully not to many cockerels.
The money he makes from them, will be put towards buying the Sablepoots.