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 -  Monday, April 20, 2009
Good Project; Definitely Want to Try Again!
Reviewed By: Martha Webb, 12 and family 
What a great learning experience about real development and animal life! I'm glad that the chilly shipment in March was no problem for the chicks. The directions could've mentioned that cool weather transit time is dormancy for the eggs and that day one ends only 24 hours after your eggs have reached 100 degrees. Apparently cortunix eggs sometimes require a little more than 18 days, and families should not examine "failed" eggs until a couple days after you expected the hatch. We followed the directions for cortunix eggs as carefully as we could for the recommended 17 - 18 days. It's a neat little incubator and held our carefully packaged teeny eggs at 100 degrees just fine. However several day after their due date nothing had happened, and we did an autopsy on the 20th day to learn more about their stage of development. The first small chick had identifiable body parts but was somewhere in the middle stages, I guess. Sad for us, but we were prepared for the fact that this is life. The second egg clearly held a LIVE chick, and my disturbance of his shell and a nick in his shell membrane made it impossible for him to hatch right. He worked visibly hard for hours to be born, but was dead on Easter morning. I'd broken the shell he was pushing against to force a crack by his beak. Therefore the remaining two eggs we waited a LONG time for. When we finally unplugged the incubator on day 24, the third egg was fully developed but never had displayed any motion, chirping, or pipping. The fourth egg was left unexamined by request of my daughter who had named and hoped for him.

 -  Friday, March 20, 2009
So far, disappointed...
Reviewed By: Jennifer in Texas 
When my box arrived (via USPS) it was very beat up; it was literally being held closed by a rubberband. They ship the 4 eggs inside the incubator. The eggs were placed in an ordinary egg container (like you would see in a grocery store), wrapped in foam that was only 1/4 inch thick, and set inside the incubator. There was no special box, protective wrapping, or anything keeping the eggs or incubator from being knocked around during shipping. As I suspected by the condition of the box, two of the eggs were broken. I'm doubtful the other 2 will hatch after being handled so rough during shipping. I will say that the customer service was great when I called and complained and they are shipping me replacement eggs. Will they be packaged any better though? As for the incubator, it is pretty difficult to hold a steady temperature. I have it in a room that we can close off and keep warmer, but be forwarned that any change (just being night time, for example) causes drastic temperature swings in the incubator. Also, there is no way to keep the large end of the egg "slightly tilted up." They roll around on the wire. I finally cut some of the 1/4 inch foam they were shipped in and use that to keep them tilted and from rolling around. Over all, I would not recommend this product.

 -  Monday, February 09, 2009
So dissappointed
Reviewed By: Laurie 
I hesitated to buy this product because I was not sure of the quality. It is cheaply made and the directions to set it up are not very clear. Thank goodness for the pictures I was able to find because that helped me more than the directions. It is extremely difficult to place water inside one of the legs for humidity without disrupting the eggs. The temperature was good...always where it should be and I turned the eggs 2x a day as directed. No babies....I waited for 4 days after the due date before turning it off. Upon cracking of the eggs...all I had was 4 yolks....no quails.

 -  Thursday, December 18, 2008
Yay almost there!!
Reviewed By: Sydney 
My quail eggs have not hatched yet(14 more days), but so far it has worked great. I really don't have to adjust the temperature that often at all. I am a first time quail hatcher and this is really easy to use. I love that it's so small and does not take up much room. I would reccommened this product to anyone who hasn't hatched an egg before.It was at a great price, and the eggs seem really healthy, when they came in the mail and I opened them up, there were about 3 cushions, and an egg carton covering the eggs. There wasn't a scratch. If they hatch I will definetly tell so on these reviews.This is a really good product.

 -  Friday, December 05, 2008
Pleasantly Surprised
Reviewed By: Rebecca 
The instruction book was lacking a little. I would have preferred more illustrations. But, we followed all the directions for keeping the eggs and on the due date I saw the first little crack in an egg. About an hour later the chick made it through. She is so strong and adorable. We will definitely try this again.

Read More Reviews

-  Thursday, September 11, 2008 A Good Small Incubator Reviewed By: Deborah Dowdy  My daughter and I have been greatly pleased with your product. We received the product by a week earlier than expected to arrive, therefore it came as a surprise that afternoon. My daughter carefully set-up according to instructions & turned the eggs twice daily, monitored the temperature & water. Only 1 egg hatched but she is the sweetest, healthest, active chick "Beth" as we call her. We also are now turning 3 chicken eggs and as of right now 1 is on its way to hatching we are hearing little beeps. For the size and price of this product we believe it's well worth it's value.  -  Friday, June 20, 2008 Incubator with Four Quail Eggs Reviewed By: Kelli W.  I would recommend this product, provided you're going to be at home to turn the eggs several times a day. I didn't expect anything to happen because several times when I was turning the eggs, it would cause one or two of the other eggs to roll around, even though I was very careful. Also the temp. shot up once in the incubator. The due date for the hatching passed & we had given up hope, but the next day, my son noticed a small little hole in one of the eggs. To make a long story short, we now have 2 little baby quail & were able to be right there watching as they hatched! Robert & Shirley (the names we gave them) are so cute & doing well.  -  Tuesday, March 11, 2008 The best things come in small packages   I was pleasantly surprised when our first baby quail hatched, then 3 days later our second quail hatched. We carefully turned the eggs daily 3-5/day until 3 days before they were to hatch. We closely monitored the temperature and humidity. I was amazed at how well this little incubator works.  -  Thursday, December 13, 2007 Perfect present for a kid!   We bought this gift for our nephew. It came in great shape. I'm sure he'll be thrilled with it and I'm looking forward to the "finished" product. It was exactly what we were looking for.  -  Friday, November 09, 2007 We Have A Baby Quail   After reading the reviews, I almost did not buy this product. We have a bigger incubator and last year we did ducks. I really wanted to do something on a much smaller scale this year so i decided to give this a try. I recived my lil incubator and eggs and set it up right away. we turned read and followed all instruction and 17 days later (last night) we were excited to see our lil hatchling, still hoping for at least 1 more out of the 4 eggs but we are happy with one. We have learned hatch rates are not great with in class (homeschool) incubators. we had 13 duck eggs and 4 hatched last yr. so im very pleased with this product  -  Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Don't Buy This Product! Reviewed By: Tammy Weeks  This was a huge waste of money. We were so excited about doing this for a homeschool science project. We were VERY diligent in making sure that we followed the directions perfectly. After the time had come and gone for the quail to hatch, we decided to break one open and see what had happened inside. To our horror, there was a baby quail inside. It had feathers, a beak, little feet, everything. I am not sure at what stage of development it stopped, but it never hatched. We did not check the rest of the eggs. This was too upsetting to myself and the children. So we got some eggs from my uncle who actually raises quail on a farm. But he has the $700 incubator. So we tried 6 more eggs. None of these have hatched either. We won't be breaking them open. I definitely think if you want to do a project like this, go ahead and get a REAL incubator. For us, we are not spending any more time or money on this experiment. [HST adds: For the price, this is usually a good tool for learning about eggs and hatching. The eggs do require daily attention, though, with turning and temperature adjustment. We aren't able to guarantee successful hatching rates, although they are typically 25-50%.]  -  Monday, May 14, 2007 Extremely Poor "Quail"-ty   We were so excited about using this for a homeschool project. We were learning about animal birth and growth. I thought it would be a wonderful experience to use a live prop and actually experience the birth of an animal. We found this website, requested 2nd Day Air (because of the frailty of the eggs), and waited. After a few days, I called the company to see what was taking so long. They said that this product was not available for 2nd-Day Air. Their supplier of this particular product only offered 1-2 week Priority Mail delivery. They offered to take the additional shipping charge off for 2nd Day Air and change it to the 1-2 week rate. So we waited again. Finally the eggs arrived and I set it up immediately upon delivery. I was very careful when handling the eggs. The yellow incubator is lightweight to the point that the cord to plug in the light bulb weighs it down. You also have to add a tiny bit of water so the eggs can "breathe". We set it up just right. We were very diligent in turning the eggs when we were supposed to, and we kept the eggs at just the right temperature. Three days after the hatch date, still nothing happened. None of the eggs hatched. I called the company again today and they said I would have to write a letter to their supplier requesting additional eggs. I would also have to include $2 for shipping and handling. These eggs are extremely fragile, and must be climate-controlled between 98-102 degrees F. I'm not gonna pay an additional charge for something that the supplier should be aware of in the first place: the frailty of the eggs. If you are going to sell something, be sure you know all about it! [Home Science Tools adds: Live quail eggs are dormant until the incubation process begins. Unfortunately, successful hatching is not guaranteed; you can typically expect a 25-50% hatch rate, though. Search our website for "Incubator FAQ" for more information.]  -  Monday, February 05, 2007 The yolk was on me   I have been happy with everything I have received from Home Science Tools except this one. Even so, I cant put all the blame for the failure on them. Frankly, with a seven watt bulb I could have made it myself. But I have to say that while regulating temp was tricky at times, it will rise to the required temp and hold it consistently. However, after watching and waiting, keeping the temp right, turning the eggs daily,nothing happened except for its preparation of soft cooked quail eggs.One of my daughters dropped and cracked an egg while turning two days before the hatch date and nothing was inside but yolk. After the hatch date we cracked the eggs to see if any development had occured by which to check it against embryo life cycle charts but all of the eggs contained only yolk. The incubator worked fine;the eggs were apparently duds or something went wrong in the process.Obviously, the eggs and hatching cant be guaranteed.But still I feel sure that it can work, it simply didnt this time. George Fear