Incubator review, Farm Innovator from Tractor Supply. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

4-14-2018
I want to review the Farm Innovator Forced Air Incubator. You can buy it at Tractor Supply for around $130.

Last year I purchased one, thought it was going to be simple, easy, piece of cake.  I bought the forced air model with the auto egg turners.  I'm no stranger to understanding temperature and humidity.  I use a separate thermometer and hydrometer made by Acu-rite. I bought it at Walmart in the cooking section, it was about $8.  I want to tell you I LOVE this thermometer!! It is amazing! It shows the highs and lows on temperature and humidity. I CANT hatch without it. I just recently bought a second one!! You will see this Acu-Rite in many of my video's. OK, back to the review.

I set up my 1st hatch in this incubator about a year ago.  I ran the incubator for a couple days to see if it kept good temp and air flow.  It seemed to be OK! I put in a small clutch and watched and waited. Only half of them hatched.  I put this incubator up and thought, I will deal with it later. I called the manufacturer and explained my issues and seeked help. They said it might need a new heating element which was pretty expensive.  I asked them about a warranty. They said it was only 30 days!! Can you believe that? Testing and a full hatch can take 30 days! You wouldn't know if it was broke or not by then.   I didn't hatch any more after that for the year so I just put it up.

So here we are Spring 2018. I thought I would try it again and really watch it closely. I put all my Polish eggs in.  I watched temp and humidity like a hawk. I candled at day 7 and again on day 14. Everything looked to be going well!! I candled at day 17 before "Lockdown" to create a video and document the incubator's results, which is below.

What I found is the eggs were at all different stages of incubation. Some were small and mostly yolk, some were already solid dark.  Some looked like they were still at day 12! Lots of heavy red veining. They all had a great air cells.  On day 18 I put them in lockdown and waited, and waited, and waited.  Day 23, 5 days later!! they decided to pip.  Very slowly only a few  per day!  They hatched for 3 days, all the way to day 25.

On day 25 I decided to candle the remaining eggs and review what could have happened.  I candled all the unhatched eggs for an extended period of time. I wanted to make sure there was no movement. I even listened to each egg.  I took 7 eggs outside to preform an unhatched egg exam. I slowly cracked the egg on the large end and peeled away the white underneath the shell.   3 were deceased and 2 were probably at the day 15 size with a yolk about the same size as them. Of course they didn't make it after a minute or so. It made me feel so terrible that I had caused them to die.  I put the 2 remaining eggs back in the incubator out of fear of causing them to pass.  I really need to try the 'HANDS OFF' method!! Its so hard to not get in there and figure it out.  Nature knows best and I need to always remember that.

So today is Day 27.  The 2 eggs I put back in have not hatched yet, or maybe never will.  I'm calling an end to this hatch.  I have 15 Polish Chickens and 3 Barred Rock Mixes that have successfully hatched. I will share their pictures on another post soon.

I placed 32 eggs, have 15 live birds... 15 is 46.875% of 32.

WOULD YOU BE OK WITH A 46% HATCH RATE? I'M NOT!

If all birds hatched, which isn't common, ok if 75% of them hatched at $10 sales price each, this incubator potentially made me lose $90. That's really close to the price of this incubator. Makes you think about it differently doesn't it?  My best word of advise is, save your money and buy a better quality incubator, or make one yourself.  

I just did for $33 and a little elbow grease, I have the capacity to hatch 120 chicken eggs at a time and closely monitor my humidity and temperature with shut off when out of range. I will post my diy incubator in another blog page. 





Below are the video reviews:

Candling Hatch at day 17

Day 23 Hatch in Farm Innovator Incubator