Borotto® Real 49 Plus Egg Incubator

This is the incubator we use on our farm.

Actually, that's not quite accurate.

We have a couple of shelves full of them. 😂

The Borotto® REAL 49 PLUS is our go-to when we're running bigger hatches because it holds a lot of eggs without making the actual incubation process unnecessarily complicated. Load it, set your temperature, keep up with humidity, and the incubator handles the egg turning for you.

It holds up to 49 medium or large eggs, or up to 196 little ones like quail eggs.

And yes, filling more than one of these at a time is exactly how you end up with a ridiculous number of chicks.

Ask me how I know.

Why We Use Them

Right now, we're hatching chicken eggs, and 49 eggs per incubator is a sweet spot for us. It's enough capacity to run a good-sized hatch without moving up to one giant cabinet incubator.

The eggs sit vertically with the pointed end down, and the automatic turner slowly tilts the entire egg holder from side to side, completing a full tilt every hour.

There's no separate turning rack to install and no remembering to turn eggs several times a day.

And when I say the turner moves slowly, I mean slowly.

If you stand there waiting to watch it move, you're going to be there a while.

What You're Working With

• Holds up to 49 medium or large eggs
• Holds up to 196 small eggs such as quail
• Universal egg holder accommodates eggs from quail through goose
• Automatic egg turning with one complete tilt every hour
• PID digital temperature control
• Adjustable temperature from 86°F to 104°F
• Radial fan for forced-air circulation
• Two large viewing windows
• External water-fill system
• Dust Stop antimicrobial water-fill plugs
• Heat-insulating ABS construction
• Biomaster® antibacterial additive incorporated into the plastic
• Approximately 23.2" x 22.8" x 10.2"
• Made in Italy

Temperature & Humidity

The REAL 49 PLUS uses Borotto's PID system to control incubation temperature, while the radial fan circulates air throughout the incubator.

Humidity is managed through water reservoirs in the bottom. The external fill system lets you add water without opening the incubator just to refill them.

Humidity needs aren't the same for every species or every stage of incubation, so manage it according to what you're actually hatching.

If you want to automate that job too, the REAL 49 PLUS works with the Borotto® SIRIO Automatic Humidity Pump, sold separately.

And yes, we use those too.

Because when you've got a couple shelves of incubators running, nobody has time to spend the day wandering around with a water bottle.

When It's Time to Hatch

When you reach the appropriate point for your species, stop the automatic turning and move the eggs onto the hatching grid according to Borotto's instructions. For chicken eggs, that's during the final three days before the expected hatch.

Then comes the part no incubator manufacturer has managed to automate:

Waiting.

After all these hatches, I should be better at it.

I'm not.