Want to watch tiny baby chicks emerge from their shells? This incubator is easy and effortless to use – literally as simple as a crock pot! Here is the absolute best incubator for hatching eggs at home.
This post contains affiliate links to the items I bought from Amazon.
The Nurture Right 360
The Nurture Right 360 is my go-to incubator that has never let me down. It is incredibly simple to use, works well and I have phenomenal hatch rates.
After months of research I hesitantly ordered this one from Amazon and held my breath as my first batch of eggs developed. Everything went flawlessly and on my very first hatch I achieved a 100% hatch rate. A live chick hatched from every egg. (In reality this has much more to do with the quality and handling of the fertilized eggs but the incubator contributed the reliable, even warmth that is vital to high hatch rates.)
It’s as Easy as a Crock Pot
The Nurture Right 360 comes with an automatic egg turner, a thermostat and humidity sensor and built in egg candler. Right out of the box, it is ready to be filled with 22 fertile eggs and begin incubating immediately.
An included direction booklet will walk you through the initial steps, explain the digital read out and instruct you on how to customize the settings. I’m serious when I say that you can go from the box to incubating within ten to fifteen minutes.
It Turns the Eggs for You!
Who knew that developing eggs need to be turned so that the embryo chick doesn’t stick inside the shell? The Nurture Right features a sturdy plastic automatic egg turner that rotates the eggs once every hour for the first eighteen days of incubation. On day 18 it will quit turning them so the chick can settle into the best position for hatching during the last couple days of growth.
The incubator holds a maximum of 22 chicken eggs but you can incubate as little as 1 egg. It does not need to be full to run properly.
Built in Candler Lets You See Inside the Eggs
On the top of the incubator is a built in LED light that is incredibly bright, called a candler because it lets you view inside the eggs. There is no need to buy a second egg candling light, the one on the Nurture Right works very well.
Power Out Champ
Springtime chick hatching tends to coincide with springtime thunder storms that knock the power out for a moment or two. The Nurture Right “remembers” all of your settings, including which day it was on and that it needs to turn the eggs, so incubation goes on without interruption if the power hiccups and flickers on and off.
For power outs longer than 30 minutes you’ll need to wrap the incubator in a towel or throw blanket to conserve heat while waiting for the electricity to return. So long as the power out is shorter than 4 hours, your eggs will be fine. The Nurture Right actually remembers its settings after being unplugged for months so you won’t need to reset anything.
Handy Temperature Alarm
A built in temperature alarm ensures there is no need to worry about the incubator somehow messing up. If temperatures creep to high or dip too low, an alarm similar to a smoke detector low battery chirp begins sounding every two seconds and will not stop until the temperature is corrected. You will be able to hear it across the house, it will wake you up and call your attention to help. (After a power out you may get a temperature alarm. Simply wrap the incubator in a towel or blanket to help it come back up to temperature.)
Download a totally FREE PDF Incubator Tracking Sheet for Easy Record Keeping!
Perfect for the Classroom!
The Nurture Right is designed with childhood education in mind. The 360° viewing lid lets children greet the tiny, wet chicks that emerge from their shells and learn about the process of embryo development.
Set It and Go!
If you are nervous about power outs or leaving the incubator unattended each night, don’t be. Because the Nurture Right remembers its settings, if there is a power out – or even if the temperature alarm goes off – the incubator works to correct itself. The hatch may be delayed by one day if a lengthy power out is experienced and male embryos may quit developing if the temperatures dip too low for too long. But you should still have a large hatch of fluffy baby chicks to enjoy!
The One Additional Thing You Need
A Non-Slip Floor Liner is a Good Idea
On hatch day, chicks emerge from their shells wet and wobbly-legged. It is very easy for them to slip on the plastic base plate and develop a deformity called splay leg within a half hour of hatching. The simple solution is to line the plastic base plate with a non-slip surface. I use inexpensive spongy shelf liner which works wonderfully! It can even be hand washed with dish soap and re-used time and time again.
On day 18 you remove the eggs for a moment, remove the white plastic egg turner wheel and then lay down the shelf liner on top of the gray base plate. The eggs are carefully returned to the incubator and the lid goes back on.
I use the automatic egg turner as a template, tracing around it onto the shelf liner, to create a piece that fits perfectly inside the incubator.
Actual Costs
At an average purchase price of $150, you only need to hatch 30 chicks at $5 each for the incubator to pay for itself. If you are accustomed to paying $10 to $12 for rare breed chicks, it will pay for itself in the first hatch of 12 to 15 chicks.
Since the incubator holds 22 eggs and you’ll likely end up with extra chicks, you can also choose to sell them and start a seasonal family side hustle that the kids will love!
Where Do I Get Fertile Hatching Eggs?
If you don’t have a rooster with your hens – or don’t have any hens at all – it is not a problem! You can find breeders who sell fertilized hatching eggs on Craig’s List and MeWe! Heck, most of the free range eggs you buy from local farms are probably fertilized, too. You’ll need to know what breeds you want to hatch and take cash to pay for the eggs when you pick them up.
Selecting hatching eggs is a lot of fun! You can choose from purebreds, Easter Eggers, blue egg laying breeds, olive eggers and unique breeding projects that a certain farm may be offering, such as Moss Eggers, Heavy Bloom layers or interesting hybrids like Bright Layer Easter Eggers.
Hatching eggs can even be purchased from Ebay or Etsy! Shipped eggs have notoriously low hatch rates but it is sometimes the only way to get the ultra rare breeds you want. Anticipate 50% of the eggs hatching out male. If purchasing fertile eggs from hens laying during the heat of summer, expect 60% of the hatch to be male (for reasons I don’t fully understand but have witnessed summer after summer).
Here is how to tell if your newly hatched chick is male or female!
Ready to Hatch Some Fluffy Babies?
The Nurture Right 360 is the best incubator for hatching eggs at home. You’re going to love the experience of hatching and raising your own baby chicks, especially since the 360 makes it so easy from start to finish! Enjoy!
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Hey there! Hatching out my first clutch of eggs using this incubator — and totally loving it so far! So easy to set up and use!! I did have a question (and perhaps I’m overthinking this . . .) does the incubator stay running heat/humidity wise AFTER the 21 day hatch period? So, if I had eggs slow to hatch out, would it stay powered on? Or how would I keep it on for those eggs? Reset it? I didn’t think of this puzzler until now, and I only have 5 days till hatch day. And can’t find the answer 🫣😅 Thanks for any advice/info you can offer!
Hi Kaitlyn!
Congrats on your soon-to-be first incubator hatch! Hatch day is the best day!!! Yes, the incubator will continue running without turning itself off, keeping the eggs warm at the temperature you set until you physically unplug it. You’ll need to continue to add water to keep it at your desired humidity if the chicks need a bit longer to hatch out. But the Nurture Right will run and maintain the set temperature until it is unplugged, even if that is a month from now. (Do not recommend waiting that long of course!)
On day 18 for chicken chicks, the egg turner will quit turning. That’s when I do my lockdown process where I carefully remove the eggs into a towel lined basket, remove the egg turner, cover the bottom gray incubator tray with grippy shelf liner, candle the eggs, place the good ones back in on top of the shelf liner and close the incubator. I’ll add water if the humidity needs to increase. There always seems to be some chick who hatches out a little later than the others and some eggs won’t hatch, having quit late in incubation but they looked okay when you candled them. All the while, the incubator keeps doing its thing, keeping all the eggs warm. On Day 23 I consider the hatch done. Closer candling usually reveals late quitters that I thought were fine on Day 18 and sometimes a chick will pip and die in the shell, which happens and isn’t your fault. Going from a fertilized germinal disc dot on a yolk to a fully formed chick in 21 days is incredible but the fast development comes at a price: if anything goes wrong at any part of the process, the chick is unviable and it’s nothing you did wrong.
I hope this helps as you prepare for hatch day!
Thanks SO much for your answer! It was very helpful! So far, 14/16 hatched, one is chirping in the shell and one is doing nothing. So I’m well pleased with the success rate! These are my first batch of chicks following your “recipes” for speckled olive eggers. I’ve always adored colored eggs, but never quite understood the genetics. Until I stumbled upon this awesome website!! You’ve done the research and put Mickey Mouse ears on it all, and I love it. And I recommend this site to all my chicken-keeping friends!
Colorful egg basket, here I come! Thank you again for all this great information!