Incubator Face-Off! comparison and review

[shmooborp]

Howdy Y'all-
Its been a good 10+ years since I've been on here and I am feeling excited to jump back into a passion my younger self once had.
I use to LOVE building my own incubators from random scrap parts and would hatch many batches ( mostly successfully!) with my other bird friends. Since then, many different varieties of incubators have become available to the general public ( the dominating World of Amazon is truly mind blowing) and I figure why not try a few different small batch table top incubators against each-other to see which ones I fancy most- a review process of ease, accuracy, and functionality.

This is going to be a little like "Whos Line Is It Anyway?" because there aren't really any rules and everything is made up.
I will be setting things up in different rooms ( changes factors) and using a staggered hatch method (whoah). I will also be incubating multiple species together until their lockdown day ( controversial I know, but it has been done.)

I am starting with 3 different incubators. All relatively approachable but each more expensive In succession.

We have:
The Janoel12- forced air and auto turner- 6-12 egg capacity
The Kebonnix - forced air and auto turner- 12 egg capacity
The NR 360- forced air and auto turner - 22-24 egg capacity

I know there are a ton of bator threads and this has likely been done before ( I've seen reviews on each of these)
but if you want to follow me on my mad man mission, come along!

 

[shmooborp]

Today I decided to take a snap shot of my Govee thermohygrometer grafts showing the whole days fluctuation and averages. Each image has the name of the incubator it represents.

The NR 360 keeps a TIGHT temperature rating as you can see barely fluctuating, while the Janoel and Kebonnix oscillate up and down but really only within a degree variant.
I’m paying most attention to their averages- all are good.
Also noting any highs or lows and for how long they stayed there. ( only short moments )
Any huge spikes were from opening things for a quick moment - the NR 360 I am hand turning and trying a slightly lower humidity.

Humidity was a lil funny today because I let things dry up a bit and then added some water this evening.
I’ll do more of these as we get into later stages.

 

[shmooborp]

Day 10 on the Runner Duck eggs.
I checked for viable life today- still have 9 strong babies!
4 left in the Janoel12 and 5 left in the Kebonnix.
Notes on each bator-
The Janoel and Kebonnix seem to stay within a degree or so.

The Janoel has slightly larger swings up and down within that degree. I noticed the temp dropped a bit when I moved my govee over just a little- ** I do wish the thermometer probe that registered its temp was central to the incubator but its off on a slightly far side that the eggs don't fully sit at when in the tuner. When I moved my govee away from the area of the probe it determined the temp was almost an additional degree lower, and even farther over another degree ontop of that. However, it does keep a higher humidity quite well. From one side of It to the other it could be 100 to 98. I thought about putting a water wiggler or some polished stones on the other side to help keep radiant warmth throughout/ balanced.
Kebonnix holds a pretty dang stable temp still. trying to get the humidity up enough ( in the stable 50s) has to stay monitored, I have to add water once a day at least. I dont mind that.
I DO love the viewing capacity of the Kebonnix much like the NR 360. its also nice that when in the turner I can nearly candle the eggs from outside of the incubator with a strong flashlight.

The NR 360 is the most stable of all, no surprise. It stays right on track within 0.2 of a degree. humidity is also kind of like the kebonnix. Just needs tending to.

I also started the process of cooling for 10 min and giving a misting today.

 

[Sylver Queen]

Following... since I'm incubating for the first time and have a NR 360. Wondered if its temp was too low, got a Govee in there now, trying to learn stuff.

 

[Huntmaster]

Howdy Y'all-
Its been a good 10+ years since I've been on here and I am feeling excited to jump back into a passion my younger self once had.
I use to LOVE building my own incubators from random scrap parts and would hatch many batches ( mostly successfully!) with my other bird friends. Since then, many different varieties of incubators have become available to the general public ( the dominating World of Amazon is truly mind blowing) and I figure why not try a few different small batch table top incubators against each-other to see which ones I fancy most- a review process of ease, accuracy, and functionality.

This is going to be a little like "Whos Line Is It Anyway?" because there aren't really any rules and everything is made up.
I will be setting things up in different rooms ( changes factors) and using a staggered hatch method (whoah). I will also be incubating multiple species together until their lockdown day ( controversial I know, but it has been done.)

I am starting with 3 different incubators. All relatively approachable but each more expensive In succession.

We have:
The Janoel12- forced air and auto turner- 6-12 egg capacity
The Kebonnix - forced air and auto turner- 12 egg capacity
The NR 360- forced air and auto turner - 22-24 egg capacity

I know there are a ton of bator threads and this has likely been done before ( I've seen reviews on each of these)
but if you want to follow me on my mad man mission, come along!

Welcome back.

 

[shmooborp]

Who needs a fancy incubator when its more fun to build one yourself. I was not impressed with the prices of incubators when I started a few years ago so I made my first incubator out of a hello fresh box. Took apart an old lamp to attach the heater and used an Arduino uno kit I had to set up the lamp and temp/humidity readings. Added a PC fan and programmed the settings and bam super cheap incubator. Every year I have rebuilt it and tweaked it. This year I upgraded to use a home depot 102L storage bin to make it my permanent incubator. For $80 I built an incubator that can comfortable hold 50 eggs and all parts are easily replaceable and repairable.

I rambled on there, I will be following along as I enjoy all of the incubation comparison threads.

This is awesome!!
I also started out making my own. My first about 17 years ago was an old Colman cooler that I rigged with a lamp and a water heater thermostat. It worked wonderfully. After a few years it broke down and fell apart- I tried to make more iterations, fancier each time but none were as good as the first.

Im at a place in life where I can play a little more so I figured why not try some of the most approachable all in one table top units and see if a pre made one is less fuss OR less fun.

 

[NagemTX]

 

[shmooborp]

Hi Y'all!

Update: eggs have been coming and going over the last week or two, getting things organized into the proper incubators.

Duck eggs are a few days out from hatch and I ended up with 6 strong eggs between Janoel12 and Kebonnix-
I felt the Kebonnix had the most accurate and stable temps so a few days ago I transitioned all the duck eggs into the Kebonnix for the remainder of their hatch.

NR360: The 360 is super stable, however the batch of eggs
I had ordered for it had some rough shipping and out of like 28 eggs only 2 developed. So I put those two eggs into the kebonnix with the ducks ( until I put them in the hatcher) and got a new set of eggs- a bunch of Seramas and Bantam Cochins.
I had way more eggs than the tuner would allow so I packed it and will hand turn for the first few days until I can cull the undeveloped ones. I think I fit about 45 bantam eggs to the gills in it.
BIG NOTE is that with that many eggs the NR struggled to get the temp up enough and I have had to adjust the temperature because it was stuck down at 95/96 even after overnight. ( hopefully didnt screw the eggs.)
The one thing I have found in common with the 360 and the Kebonnix is the humidity can be a struggle to keep up, they dry out quick, but then even a little bit of water added will cause a spike so I'm still trying to find a happy medium, I think I will look into trying the shoestring method where you feed a sting into the water reservoir that is attached to a cup of water outside the bator and feeds it a slow drip.

One thing that I find particularly interesting about the Janoel12 is the placement of the temp thermostat - I notice its kinda off to the side of the incubator and up higher, rather than down central to egg level- it is ziptied to the cieling and I am thinkin about cutting the zip tie and rearranging it lower and slightly more central to see if that gives me a more stable temp reading at egg level. The other thing that is kinda weird is the tuner is an odd device that protrudes from the cieling and is s metal bar that slowly spins so it takes up some egg space. the metal bar is attached with nuts and bolts and for hand turning I would honestly just take it out if you can unscrew it.
This is all a bunch of rambling but I will take pictures soon. Stay tuned for hatch this coming week!

 

[shmooborp]

I almost forgot how difficult it is to twiddle your thumbs on lockdown days!!

I have my 6 Runner Duck eggs and 2 remaining Bantam Bobtail Cochin eggs ( originally started 24 in the 360 but shipping was rough) in my Kebonnix both set to hatch starting thursday/friday!
the wait is sooo hard. I am excited to see my first pip.

With the NR 360 and Janoel12 being empty I went ahead and ordered my next round of eggs- a mix of Seramas and more Bantam Cochins. This time I let the eggs rest pointy end down in the house for 24+ hours and then waited for 4 day to turn them to let the air cells further settle. Muchhh better numbers in the NR 360 this time. I was able to definitively tell development from non development even just 4 days in ( I feel like banty eggs grow fast)
and Pulled the for sure empty eggs, and began turning.

I will give an update on those soon.

Kebonnix is holding steady temps ( I bumpped down to 99.0 98.9 because ducks can really get stressed from heat durring hatch) and is also holding good humidity at 60+ % with both water res. full.

 

[shmooborp]

tonight is day 27 for my Runner ducks and day 21 for my cochin bantams and we have 2 duck eggs pipped!!
I know they will take a while to hatch, but its almost day 22 for the cochin bantams and I am worried they have not pipped yet. usually they go a little earlier. crossing my fingers!