I couldn’t believe that I had to scrape ice from my car windscreen this morning! As the nights are getting colder it’s a good time to advise anyone who has incubators running in an outhouse to bring them in.

We never recommend running incubators in sheds etc, however know that sometimes space is tight and it can happen. When the weather gets colder the incubators are running constantly trying to get up to temperature and when the weather is in minus figures this not only puts a strain on the incubator, but the incubators internal temperature can potentially dip also.

We recommend a spare room/bedroom as the temperature in a house is usually a lot more constant. Ideally, to get the best from your incubator, the room temperature should not dip below 15 degrees celcius.

I have had a great few days searching out eggs for incubating again, as you can see from the posts here the staff are getting all the fun with incubating hatching eggs but it is time I got my share of incubating back.

So I have arranged Rhea, Turkey, Peacock, Chicken, Pheasant and Quail eggs for next week.

I will be using the RCOM 20 Pro’s, Rcom 50 Pro and the Maru 500.  Yes running an incubator selling business makes me a lucky man.

I hope you put some videos together for you of the whole incubation process

Well Spring has definitely sprung and our chickens are laying like there is no tomorrow.  As a result I have been able to get a RCOM 20 Pro incubator up and running, which is brilliant as a had only a small knowledge of what this brilliant machine can offer.

As you know, I set up my Suro incubator only a few weeks back, and I must say that the RCOM 20 Pro is a lot different.  When it comes to setting up the water reservoir is in the incubator so there is no pump to worry about and the little touch of magic comes when you switch the machine on and press the Menu button.

You can then select the species of bird, say Chicken, Duck, Geese, Quail, Pheasant, Peacock, the list goes on.  Once you have selected the species the digital display then shows you the temperature settings at which days, the humidity settings, the turning settings, the turning interval and then finally the countdown menu.  With this then the incubator can be pre-programmed to incubate pretty much any species, as you programme it in.  It is already preset for the birds on the list so you don’t have to do anything except skip through these functions however if you need to alter anything it’s there at a touch of a button.

I first thought that it would be a little to advanced and I would have to speak with our technician to fully understand the lists etc but the display makes it easy to understand.

If you are looking for the bees-knees in incubators then this is definitely the one

Well I’ve gone and done it!  I have a RCOM Suro Incubator currently sitting in my spare bedroom at home with 24 eggs in.

Initially I thought to myself that I would look at is as a piece of homework, have the incubator and learn the ins and outs of it, however anyone who knows me knows that I am completely aminal mad and I am getting more and more excited as the days countdown to the hatch.

When I got the Suro home (luckily I have watched the very clever YouTube videos) I took all the items out of the box and laid them out on the work surface, much to the delight of my cat who was highly intrigued and tried to nick a few items to play with

Once I had everything in its place (a little pedantic I know) I then assembled the rocking cradle making sure that the aluminium poles we in a tight as possible before adding the screws.  I then assembled the pump and attached it to the incubator.  I put it all together and was very pleasantly surprised with the ease of it all (I thought that seeing Glyn putting a Suro together and doing it yourself were two very different things!) 

One tip is that the pump need to be primed a few times so the water travels through the tubes into the incubator.  Once you hold the + button then the pump kicks in and you can see the water travelling up the tube and as soon as a drop hits the humidity pad then the job is complete.

So I am now 11 days in and will be candling my eggs tonight once I get home.  I am truely excited about the next 10 days and I’m sure that this will allow me to know exactly what happens during hatch and afterwards.  I have read many a book and also listened intently when advice has been offered but nothing is like experiencing it for yourself

Hello peeps

Over the past few days we can tell that you are all thinking about the new hatching season as our hatching eggs are taking off! Luckily our chickens are really starting to knuckle down to business if you know what I mean.  I’m no David Attenborough however I can now distinguish the noises made during such liaisons

If you are looking to put some Fertile Eggs into your incubator its an idea to get your brooders/lamps chick feeders and drinkers and chick crumb in place so when your little ones arrive you have a set up in place.  We have recently got some Brooder Rings into stock and they are proving to be a popular choice. 

Another thing people are thinking about is (the dreaded) Red Mites.  It’s nice to see that people are stocking up and I have my fingers crossed that the national Red Mite infestation of last year stays as last years news.  If you are thinking about stocking up the Red Mite Fumers have a shelf life of 3 years and the red mite powder is a great deterrent.

Trevor rightly blogged about “taking time to smell the Roses” and as the nights are starting to draw out we all have more time in the evenings to go into the garden, with a cuppa in my case, and just relax - unless you have a Whippet like mine who will just run around like a fool as if it was the first time he had ever seen daylight that is.

Well I’m off to enjoy the weekend and I hope that when you read this that is exactly what you are doing too

Take care

Well finally the days are getting longer and the egg laying hormone is returning to the hens and the cockerels are getting more active you can concider incubating your fertile eggs again.

However please remember we are just into Feb, this means it is still cold hatching eggs must be collected very fresh and stored at 8-10c please do not store them in the garage or outhouse or they may well freeze overnight and die.

When you have stored your eggs and have enough to start incubating again please do not forget to run your incubator in a heated room, all incubators should run in rooms above 15c if the temp goes lower than this at night then you will have problems with the incubator burning itself out or incubating eggs getting under 37.5c as the incubator just can not cope.

So many people incubate in unheated rooms in the summer and of course get away with it but it is not summer now so please thing of the surronding conditions and you will get good early hatches but forget about them and you will have early disasters.

We are incubating and getting good results as can you

I wish you great success in your early incubation.

Hello, all sorry for the long absence again but it is just so hectic. The number one question at the moment is what are the settings for the rcom incubators for egg types.

I suggest the following settings for Duck, Geese and Chicken Eggs

Humidity 45% for all turning days and for the last two days (non-turning days) I suggest 62%, i have found these to give the best results overall.

I leave the temp setting at 37.5c throughout the whole incubation period.

I hope this helps.

Yes we are about 1 month away from the launch of this new incubator and are very excited indeed. We have been involved since the concept of this new r-com egg incubator. This was designed to have the big 3 off temperature control, auto turning and humidity control at a price that make the R-COM brand more available to all incubation enthusiasts.

Please see our site for full details under Suro Incubator.

I am biased so please try to balance my comments:-

Both Brinsea and RCOM have upgraded their incubators this year, both are supposed to be improvements :-

Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance, the new octagon 20 incubator. This has been rebuilt with a new heating system and therefore easier to see inside the incubator, also with a new digital readout with push button control. So is it an advance on the old model? Well maybe, it is easier to use but I still find the fan so close to the eggs a real pain at hatching time and filling up the humidity groves are still fiddley. I gave the old Brinsea 5-10 and would rate this 5.5/10 maybe more if the fan was further away from the eggs at hatching time. Price from £199.99 to £224.95

There is another model in this range Octagon 20 Advance EX this is as above with humidity control, this does indeed help with filling those annoying humidity groves but still does not take away from fan location. Price from £275.00 to £299.95.

RCOM 20 Standard this has also been upgraded it now has a complete rebuild on the humidity system, it now works on a a small heater unit in the water resivoir which raises the water temp to aid evaporation which is moved round by a gentle fan. It has full digital temp control as before and full autoturning. Price from £209.99 to £249.99 (As it has full humidity control it rally jumps past the Octagon 20 Advance to the EX model but at £70-£90 cheaper is is a must choice.)

RCOM 20 Pro, this also has had an overhaul and also has the new heated humidity system but the whole menu function on this model has been fully upgraded to a new easy to use lcd screen. Within the menu you can choose various egg types and press a button and the incubator will do the rest for you. It knows what temps, how long to turn the eggs and then when to stop. It also knows when to raise humidity. A stunning incubator. The USB model comes with computer software which allows you to keep accurate egg records on screen. Prices from £299.99 to £369.99.

I highly recommend the RCOM above the Octagon models as in my view you get so much more for your money! Humidity controlled RCOM incubators from £209.99 or full AUTOMATIC ‘SMART BRAIN’ RCOM incubators from £299.99 leaves the others standing.

There is one more plus, the heating in the R-COM incubators is not directly in the egg section but gently wafter in through gentle vents ensuring hatching is much easier for the birds, yet powerful enough to keep very even temps.

If you have the budget go for the RCOM 20 Pro, if not the RCOM 20 standard will be a super incubator for you.

To be honest it is what I would consider a very important part of incubating eggs, if you own an incubator then you should really have an egg candler. The reasons for this is one of enjoyment so you can actually watch the little chick developing inside the egg and I must be honest with you, this experience is not one easily forgotten. I am afraid the other reason is a serious one and that is to remove infertile eggs from the incubator, if you do not remove non-fertile eggs then the risk of bacteria growth in your incubator is very high and if this is able to get in fertile eggs through the pores then it may make the chicks too unwell to hatch or even kill them during incubation.

Ideally candling at 10 days for a novice should tell if eggs are fertile or not.

It is also very important to get the correct candler, our own Standard candler and is perfect for white, cream or light brown eggs.

If you wish to do Duck Eggs, Goose eggs or very dark chicken eggs then I must recommend the High Intensity Candler as this will allow you to see inside the eggs where as this Standard Candler would not allow that on thicker or very dark eggs.

Using a candler is very easy, you place the ‘fat’ end of the egg to the light end of the unit, press the button and hey presto you can see inside the egg and what is happening.

Please remember Standard Candler for light egg colours and High Intensity Canlderfor Thick Shelled or Dark coloured eggs. If you have exotic eggs to candle this candler is not recommended and you should consider the Brinsea Cool Lume Candler.