Optional stage — the 21 days before the brooder
This is the incubator most beginners buy, and the one with the worst reputation for documentation. That reputation is half wrong - there is no specification table, but there is a manual, a sixteen-page FAQ with a full species table, and a calibration sheet. Read all three and the machine gets a lot more interesting.
By Scooter M.·Published September 27, 2026
The short answer
Twenty-two chicken eggs, forced air with a fan, a horizontal rolling turner that “turns for 5 seconds every 60 minutes”, a digital display whose temperature and humidity readings can both be calibrated, and a one-year warranty. The catch is not the hardware, it is a number: Manna Pro’s own species table gives 48 to 55 percent humidity for chicken eggs through incubation, where Mississippi State University Extension publishes 58 to 60 percent. That gap is the single most important thing to know before you set eggs in this machine.
This site has previously described the Nurture Right 360 as a machine from a maker that publishes nothing, and has quoted a two-hour turning interval taken from a retailer’s specification listing. Both needed fixing, and we went looking properly before writing a review of it.
Manna Pro publishes three documents: an instruction manual, a sixteen-page FAQ with a species table, and a temperature and humidity calibration sheet. What it does not publish is a specification table — there is no maker’s figure anywhere for dimensions, weight or wattage, which still have to come from a retailer. So the documentation is much better than we said, and still incomplete in a way that matters for running cost.
Almost no incubator maker publishes per-species targets. This one does, and it is the reason to keep the FAQ rather than throw it out with the box.
| Bird | Incubation | Incubation humidity | Lockdown | Lockdown humidity | Turning | Approx. eggs | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 99.5 F | 48 to 55% | 99.5 F | 65 to 75% | Automatic | 22 | 21 |
| Duck | 99.5 F | 50 to 60% | 98.5 F | 65 to 70% | Automatic | 12 to 18 | 28 |
| Quail | 99.5 F | 40 to 50% | 98.5 F | 70% | Either | 44 | 17 to 23 |
Two things stand out. The machine drops the target temperature for lockdown on most species but not on chickens, which stay at 99.5 F throughout. And quail are listed as “Either” on turning, because the FAQ says elsewhere that quail eggs “may be too small for use with the automatic egg turner” — with the turner tray removed entirely, “the incubator can hold about 90 quail eggs.”
Here is the conflict in full. For chicken eggs through the incubation period, Manna Pro publishes 48 to 55 percent. Mississippi State University Extension publishes 58 to 60 percent relative humidity from setting through day 18. Those ranges do not overlap. On lockdown they agree well enough — Manna Pro’s 65 to 75 percent sits neatly around the extension figure of 65 percent or more.
This is published twice, in two documents, which is usually a sign a maker is tired of answering it. The FAQ: “For best results, we recommend using the incubator in a room that stays between 74F-80F.” And in the troubleshooting section: “Ensure the incubator is located up off the floor, in a room at least 74F and away from drafts and windows.”
Seventy-four Fahrenheit is warmer than a lot of houses, and considerably warmer than the garage or spare room where an incubator usually ends up. A machine that cannot hold temperature or humidity in a 62 F utility room is not necessarily a faulty machine — it is a machine outside its published operating conditions. If your only option is a cool room, that is an argument for a different machine, and it is why the specified operating environment belongs in a review rather than in a footnote.
The humidity system is two water pots filled from outside the lid, and the published instructions are unusually specific for this price bracket:
The sliding air vent knob is the other half of the humidity control, and it works the way that always surprises people: “Close the vent to increase humidity or open the vent to decrease humidity.” With a floor under it — the vent must stay “at least 1/3 open for the first 18 days, although 1/2 open is recommended”, and then “the air vent MUST be fully opened for the last 3 days of incubation.” Closing the vent to chase a humidity reading during lockdown is therefore not available to you, which is the correct design decision and worth knowing before you try it.
The third document is the one that changes how you should think about this machine. It publishes a procedure for calibrating both the temperature and the humidity readings against a trusted secondary instrument, in 0.5 F steps, up to a stated limit: “The maximum temperature calibration adjustment is +/- 2.5 F.”
That is a genuinely useful thing on a budget incubator. The standard advice for any cheap incubator is to put your own calibrated thermometer inside it and trust that instead of the display — our incubator roundup says as much. Here you can do one better: measure the offset, then correct the display so the machine’s own thermostat is working from the true figure rather than merely reporting a wrong one to you. A 2.5 F window covers the drift you would plausibly find.
The FAQ is refreshingly willing to say no, and these limits are all published rather than inferred:
The turner stops itself and then prompts you: the display change is “a reminder to remove the egg turner from incubator base and to increase the humidity.” Usefully, “the eggs do not need to be removed in order to remove the egg turner” — you lift the turner off its shaft and leave the eggs lying on the floor of the machine.
That is the correct behavior and the correct prompt, and it is the part of a first hatch people most often get wrong. It also matters that the manual tells you to wait: some chicks are late, and the guidance runs to day 23 before giving up. Combined with “avoid opening the lid frequently”, that is the whole of lockdown discipline in two instructions.
The built-in LED candler is the other thing that keeps a first-timer honest, because it means candling does not require a separate gadget or a dark cupboard. The manual’s cautions are sensible: dim the room, do not shake the egg, and because “the room temperature is much lower than that of the incubator, candling should be completed within 8 minutes.”
It earns its place. Twenty-two eggs is a real hatch rather than a demonstration, the external water ports remove the main reason people open a running incubator, hourly turning comfortably clears the published minimum, the turner stops itself and says so, and the display can be calibrated. The dome is not a gimmick either — for a family or a classroom, being able to see in is most of the point.
Three reasons to buy something else instead. If you want to compute what a hatch costs before you buy, no maker’s wattage figure exists, so you can only work out a ceiling from a retailer’s 40 watt rating — the running-cost page does that arithmetic for every machine here and this is the one where it is least solid. If you want a warranty proportional to the risk, the Brinsea Maxi 24 Advance publishes three years against one, plus a full specification table, programmable turning and a published 24 watts typical. And if egg count per dollar is the whole objective, the Farm Innovators 4250 takes 41 and includes a candler, at the cost of a polystyrene shell and even thinner documentation.
If the room you plan to put it in is below 74 F, none of the above is the deciding factor — fix the room first, or buy the machine whose published operating conditions you can actually meet.
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Twenty-two eggs in the middle of the market, against a smaller machine with better documentation and a warranty three times as long, and a bigger one with a candler in the box.
Harris Farms
22 eggs
Twenty-two eggs, a horizontal rolling turner that runs for five seconds every sixty minutes, and a 360-degree dome that is the reason children stay interested for three weeks — from a maker that publishes a manual and a species table but never a specification sheet.
#ad Price as of September 27, 2026. How this is funded.
Brinsea
24 eggs, 24 W typical
Twenty-four hen eggs on programmable automatic turning at a published twenty-four watts — the size that actually produces a first flock rather than a demonstration.
#ad Price as of September 27, 2026. How this is funded.
Farm Innovators
41 eggs
Forty-one large chicken eggs on an automatic turner with a candler in the box, in a polystyrene shell — the highest capacity here and the shortest list of things the maker will commit to in writing.
#ad Price as of September 27, 2026. How this is funded.
For a first or family hatch, yes. Twenty-two chicken eggs, forced air, external water ports so you never open a running machine, a turner that runs hourly and stops itself at lockdown, a built-in LED candler, and a display you can calibrate. The weak points are a one-year warranty, no maker's wattage or dimension figures, and a fixed non-adjustable turner.
Manna Pro's FAQ says the turner 'turns for 5 seconds every 60 minutes' - 24 turns a day. Mississippi State University Extension publishes a minimum of four to six turns daily, so it clears that comfortably. Retailer listings that say every two hours are wrong; the FAQ also suggests marking an egg with an X to confirm your own unit is turning.
This is where the sources disagree. Manna Pro's own species table gives 48 to 55 percent through incubation and 65 to 75 percent for lockdown. Mississippi State University Extension publishes 58 to 60 percent through day 18 and 65 percent or more afterwards. The lockdown figures agree; the incubation figures do not overlap. If you follow the lower figure, check egg weight loss rather than trusting the number.
The maker publishes it twice: at least 74 F, with 74 to 80 F recommended, kept up off the floor and away from drafts and windows. A unit that cannot hold temperature or humidity in a cool garage is often being run outside its published conditions rather than being faulty.
Yes, and it is the feature nobody mentions. Manna Pro publishes a calibration sheet for both the temperature and the humidity readings, adjusted in 0.5 F steps against a trusted secondary instrument, with a stated maximum temperature adjustment of plus or minus 2.5 F.
Twenty-two chicken eggs on the published species table. The same table gives 22 to 24 pheasant, 12 to 18 duck and 44 quail. With the turner tray removed it holds about 90 quail eggs, or about 10 to 12 goose, turkey or peacock eggs, all of which have to be hand turned at least three times daily.
The Brinsea publishes a full specification table, three years of warranty against one, programmable turning with a stated angle and interval, and 24 watts typical with a 40 watt maximum so running cost can be computed properly. The Nurture Right 360 takes fewer eggs at 22 against 24, but costs less, and the 360-degree dome is the reason families and classrooms choose it. Documentation and warranty favor the Brinsea; visibility and price favor the Nurture Right.
Every figure cited on this page came from one of these documents. If one of them has changed since we read it, the number here is out of date and we would like to know.
Incubators compared on published watts and egg capacity, the running cost of a 21-day hatch, and the extension figures for temperature, humidity and turning.
Six incubators on published watts, capacity and turning intervals — and the two makers who publish no specification table at all.
Published turning intervals from every 60 minutes to every 4 hours, when each machine stops turning, and which ones let you change it.
A 21-day hatch costs roughly one to four dollars in electricity. The full arithmetic, with published wattage and every input shown.
The published 21-day timeline: temperature, humidity, turning and candling figures for each stage, and what has to be ready on day 21.
Six brooder plates on published wattage, capacity and leg adjustment, with the running cost of each computed for a full brood.