in this video I'd like to introduce you to what I consider to be the best table top
popular incubator you can buy they're relatively inexpensive and this one is called the Genesis and
it's model 1588 made by gqf and I think this is great for classroom use for a number of reasons
one is that this unit has a nice clear top for example which means that students will be able to
look through and see the incubation process and it has a much wider view than some other units
made by the same company have the other thing is you'll notice that there's no adjustment knob
on top which a lot of incubators also have this incubator comes with electronic thermostat preset
now I verify the temperature burner making this video to see that it operated at ninety nine point
eight degrees and since the normal force or units you want ninety nine point five degrees so ninety
nine point eight is really a good setting so you shouldn't have to fiddle with it also when these
units sit in classrooms students sometimes come up and want to fiddle and adjust and they don't
have an opportunity with a preset unit like this so I'll go over how to put the components together
this is how it comes from the manufacturer the first thing that will go in is this tray
that keeps the bottom clean but it also has two reservoirs for water so this goes in the bottom
the next thing that goes on top of this reservoir tray is something we call hardware cloth and this
is a screen that if you were for example to put your eggs in the incubator without an automatic
Turner they would rest on top of the screen and also when your chicks hatch they'll walk on the
screen and it keeps them out of the water now I'm going to demonstrate all the extras that you can
get with it so rather than turn eggs by hand we're including this automatic egg turn which
also comes from GQ F has a capacity for 42 chicken eggs now they also send with the automatic Turner
replacement rags for quail eggs now you have a 42 egg capacity of you doing chicken eggs
but if you doing quail eggs you can actually handle 120 each one of these racks holds 20
eggs they change out easily on their cotter pins at the end that you pull out you pull this white
strip off and then these each lifts out and are easily removed and then you install the quail
egg replacement cups they also have another extra that's for goose eggs for example and
it holds fewer eggs but has a larger capacity so you would put your egg turn in the bottom
sitting on top of the screen and here's the motor that it just rocks it back and forth
it's has a rate of rotation of about once every 4 hours for a complete revolution according to the
instruction manual it came with it there's also a groove in the corner here that accommodates the
cord that comes out this corresponding groove in the top that the court will pass through
and that's all there is to setting up the unit it's ready to go so there are two plugs that
come off of it one of course is going to be for the auto break Turner and the other you'll notice
is for the DC transformer it also plugs into a regular 110 outlet now the transformer plugs
in on top right here and then the units running there's no other setting for you to do all that
you do is let it set up for 24 hours ahead of time if you're doing this for the first time and I've
never had shakes before I recommend that you not use valuable chicken eggs for example your first
time around also there are instructions in the manual that show you how to make adjustments to
this preset thermostat don't make any adjustments right off the bat run a hatch and if it goes
really well and you know the settings are perfect if your chickens hatch early and you know that the
temperature was probably too high if they hatch late and you know that the temperatures were too
low so then you make adjustments according to the instruction form that comes with in the owners
manual now they also have a thermometer B comes with it this thermometer is on a thin piece of
blue side it looks like this will they run on top of the eggs and then that allows you to observe
the temperature inside if you're doing this as a course with children I mean there are a lot
of different things that they can learn from it for example they could weigh the eggs before they
begin their incubation process and they should lose 13% of their weight on average throughout
the hatching or incubation process which is 21 days for chickens if you're asking something other
than a chicken always consult hatching schedule to make sure that you're going to have them in for
the proper amount of time now something that's happened often and I get emails about is that
there's often a power loss and if you're in the springtime and your chickens your eggs are in here
and there debating or maybe at the 15th or 16th day if you lose power and it cools down obviously
you can lose your entire hatch so what's really interesting about this unit is it runs on 12 volt
DC that's why we have this transformer here the fact that it runs out 12 volt DC means that you
can also have a backup system in the event of a power loss so this adapter is available also
from gqf and it plugs into the exact same plug that your normal power source would and this
allows you to connect to 12 volt battery 12 volt batteries are pretty available for example you
find them in cars lawn tractors boat motors and things like that snowmobile so in an emergency you
could pull a battery from almost any source that you have in this case I have a 12 volt battery
already standing by and batteries are always mark positive and negative and make sure that if you're
setting up battery and you can run this in an emergency situation that you keep the battery
away from children and pets so that nobody gets a shock so you would hook the negative side first
which is the black insulator and the positive side last which is the red and then the unit's
running again so in a pinch you could hook this up to a battery of course the bigger the battery
and the more voltage it holds the more amp power that it has the longer that the end it's going to
run off of it now the only thing that runs when you're hooked up to a battery is going to be the
heating unit and a fan that circulates the air the automatic Turner is not connected to the battery
so that your eggs won't continue to rotate on their own when you're on auxiliary power like this
so I recommend that if you get to that point and you're an emergency situation and you're going to
run this off of a battery you can have to remove the automatic egg turn and turn the eggs by hand
if you're turning off the battery source again disconnect positive first and then negative last
unplug it and then when your power is restored just replug in the original adapter and we're back
on track again also for some reason you had to move them in an emergency you could hit the same
system up in your car for example and transport eggs running off a battery keeping them warm so
in my opinion if you're setting up for classroom use and you're going to do a hatch module it's
your first time around this is the most automatic and less complete system that I can recommend
you