The Moonshiner's Bootleg Incubator Reviews And Discussions

[The Moonshiner]

I too may have to hide it under my bed for awhile....

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, can I get a consensus about hatching in this MatiCoopX 30? Mine is finally coming via Fedex this Wednesday and my hatching eggs will likely be next week rather than this week because last week's cold spell slowed down Jamie's BR hens and he wants to be sure I get extras over the dozen he's sending, which I much appreciate.
Have you folks dry-hatched in this particular incubator? I have never dry hatched in any bator, personally, but I am assessing the way to do this for the very best outcome after such expensive eggs/shipping eggs. Generally, I would keep humidity between 35 and 45 the first 18 days, but I want to know how much success you've had in the MatiCoopX doing it that way, if anyone has. Thanks so much, folks!

 

[Island Coppers]

I've been incubating BCM's in a MatiCoopX 30 and had fairly good hatch rates. Where I am near the coast the humidity is often high which does affect my "dry hatch". The humidity in the room you operate the incubator in is going to influence the the humidity in the incubator. I have run mine totally dry for 18 days and had a about 40% humidity with outside humidity at 65%. But recently below freezing temperatures resulted in the humidity dropping to 19% during an incubation, so I added water to bring it nearer to the 30% to 40% range I wanted. The reason for doing a dry hatch is to maintain the air sac at the right size so the chick has enough air and enough space to hatch. It depends on the type of eggs and your particular conditions whether a dry hatch is going to help the hatching rate. Best of luck.

 

[speckledhen]

@Island Coppers thank you. I am in the mountains of N. GA right at the NC line at 2000 ft elevation, so humidity does vary, especially dry in winter. I'm sure I'll have to add a bit of water, but I think I'll likely do a test run to see what I see (w/no eggs, of course). At the moment it's about 50* with 55% humidity outside and the Hovabator I have set up with very little water in it is at the same. As long as this new Maticoopx is as good about the readings as most say it is, I think I can guess what I need to do. I like the little dial that opens to let humidity out and the fact that you can add H2O without opening the incubator will help make adjustments so much better than the Genesis I've used for years.

 

[Island Coppers]

speckledhen,​

Your welcome.

The manual says you're supposed to keep the MatiCoopX in a room that is in between 70f to 80f. I can't do that so I found that making a shallow box out of insulation board and covering the top with towels (except air holes) really helped stabilize the temperatures. The senors in the incubator showed humidity at consistent 0.9% higher than the two small senors that are more accurate. And although the temperature senor in the incubator is very reassuring I found the temps actually varied more as the heater cycled on and off and in areas in the incubator. The insulation really helped that.

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks so much for that!

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Maticoopx 20 arrived and safely hidden under the bed... Or just tucked away out of site for now. Looking forward to the unboxing after my trip in April .

 

[Kattzombiee]

Hi all. I have spent the last few days reading thru all of these posts before finally jumping on an incubator to purchase. I was just curious if anyone knows if any of these can handle turkey eggs? I can tell the maticoopx won't but it's currently still in the running as my pick for purchase. I'm thinking I'll need to buy one specifically just to run the turkeys with. TIA.

 

[BobMcDuff]

Well... Thanks to this thread and several others I picked up one of the 30 egg maticoopx to replace my home made incubator (wanted autoturners and a smaller footprint). Currently on day 12 I believe (should hatch March 8th). This will be our first try at shipped eggs, and last minute we got a rooster to add to our own girls, but he didn't have much time to get to them. Set 9 shipped eggs, and 18 of our own. Candling the other night revealed 2 clears in the shipped eggs, 10 clear from our own, which with the circumstances I am actually rather happy with. 15 eggs total showing very active development, and the shipped eggs air cells aren't as bad as I anticipated, though they are larger than our personal. Waiting to see how they all come out.

 

[BobMcDuff]

Also, my first tinkering with a 3d printer, found some files in verse for supports for the eggs that aren't in a full rack of the turners, and made my own dividers for when they hatch so I can tell which chicks can't from which eggs.