Cheap Egg Incubator

[RichardK]

I'm thinking forward to next year and getting a cheap incubator for raising queens. I'm not likely to be doing many, so I don't want to spend much either! Looking on Amazon / Ebay I've seen this: Incubator on Amazon.co.uk. Does it look reasonable of complete crap... Or does anyone know of a better option they could share?
Many thanks.

 

[Angry_Mob]

Reviews don't look great.

My advice is to check eBay, Facebook marketplace etc for a second-hand Brinsea incubator.

 

[mbc]

I'm thinking forward to next year and getting a cheap incubator for raising queens. I'm not likely to be doing many, so I don't want to spend much either! Looking on Amazon / Ebay I've seen this: Incubator on Amazon.co.uk. Does it look reasonable of complete crap... Or does anyone know of a better option they could share?
Many thanks.

I use one similar, I run it from the fag lighter socket in the truck for transporting cells

 

[drdrday]

I'm thinking forward to next year and getting a cheap incubator for raising queens. I'm not likely to be doing many, so I don't want to spend much either! Looking on Amazon / Ebay I've seen this: Incubator on Amazon.co.uk. Does it look reasonable of complete crap... Or does anyone know of a better option they could share?
Many thanks.

Do you actually need an incubator? Not being negative, but a genuine question.

Unless you're planning to raise a lot of queens, or need to transport them, you probably don't actually need an incubator. The bees in a hive will keep the temperature much more stable than some of the cheap incubators. Depending what sort of method you're planning to use to raise queens it might be worth just seeing how you get on next year before you bother to invest in an incubator.

 

[RichardK]

Do you actually need an incubator? Not being negative, but a genuine question.

Unless you're planning to raise a lot of queens, or need to transport them, you probably don't actually need an incubator. The bees in a hive will keep the temperature much more stable than some of the cheap incubators. Depending what sort of method you're planning to use to raise queens it might be worth just seeing how you get on next year before you bother to invest in an incubator.

I'm thinking batches of up to 15, which in reality may mean 7 to 20 depending on take rates. It seemed an easier way of monitoring them than leaving in a finisher.

But you have a point. From what I can see cheap incubators don't have many reviews, & what they do have are not encouraging. And I'm not into coughing up much for it!

 

[Wilco]

I've got a cheap one from ebay, got it a few years ago and works ok although the last two hatches failed I think this was due to the fertility of the eggs. Temperature is pretty good and on mine is programmable so can set to different temps. I checked calibration when I first got it using every thermometer at work (several) and I found that there's a lot of variation in the work thermometers! Mine is also a convenient roughly 46cm square so I could use it to warm stored frames before extraction... Humidity sensor packed up a while back but not expensive to get a separate battery one with a probe if that happens. Main issue is potential fire risk.

 

[drdrday]

I'm thinking batches of up to 15, which in reality may mean 7 to 20 depending on take rates. It seemed an easier way of monitoring them than leaving in a finisher.

But you have a point. From what I can see cheap incubators don't have many reviews, & what they do have are not encouraging. And I'm not into coughing up much for it!

I'm a complete novice at queen rearing, only having my first attempt this year, so I'm far from an expert, but I was surprised at how simple it can be and how little additional equipment you actually need. I used the Ben Harden method, and only did 10 grafts (7 successful) across one bar on my queen rearing frame. It would have been easy enough to do another 10 on the second bar - and still allow enough room to put roller cages on them all. So with the batch sizes you're aiming for, this would be perfectly achievable and is pretty hands off, just letting the bees get on with providing the right environment.

 

[Ian123]

Some of the reptile shops have sensible priced incubators. But as suggested above do you really need 1. Probably the biggest benefit I can see is giving the virgins a once over to whittle out the odd visible dud.