[steve_in_devon]

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

[Bodger]

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.
 
 
 
 

 

 


 


 
 
 
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.

[OhLaLa]

Plenty of choice on this website:
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
 
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
and
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
 
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............

-------------

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............
    
 

[Dan]

We've got most Brinsea models listed here:

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/shop/poultry/incubators-brooders/

Wells Poultry are usually very competitive on price and you can occasionally get a bargain on eBay.

HTH,

Dan

[Clarebelle]

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. 

[Marches Farmer]

[font=arial
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
 
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?

[Bodger]

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
 
The Wells poultry link appears to be defunct.

[Dan]

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

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. 

[hughesy]

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.

[graham-j]

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.

[Bodger]

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.

[hughesy]

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.

[Stereo]

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.

[Dan]

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. 

[Daisys Mum]

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.