An incubator can hatch pigeon eggs, but it is a last resort. Squabs need crop milk from soon after hatching, and the best chance of survival is a natural upbringing with pigeon parents; hand-rearing means feeding the chicks quickly with a syringe. For abandoned eggs, incubation is the best way of caring for the egg and then hand-rearing the squab.
Two incubators that work well for pigeon eggs are below, with fuller reviews further down the page:
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- Brinsea Mini II Advance Incubator (opens in new tab)
- Hatchmate Automatic Incubator (opens in new tab)
Types Of Incubators
There are a number of different types of egg incubators that you can use for pigeons.
These include fully automatic incubators, circulated air incubators and still air incubators.
Fully Automatic Egg Incubators
Fully automatic incubators are the most expensive type. This is because they give you a lot of control over all aspects of managing your eggs.
You can set and alter temperatures as well change humidity levels to suit your needs at any time through an easy-to-use user interface on either software or hardware controls if it is connected wirelessly with such devices like smartphones for example.
Fully automatic incubators can also rotate the eggs. This is important as it helps to ensure that the yolk remains centered and prevents the pigeon embryo from sticking to the egg membrane.
Circulated Air Egg Incubators
Circulated Air Incubators differ to fully automatic incubators in that they still require manual turning of eggs.
This type has a fan that circulates the warm, moist incubation atmosphere around the egg tray.
Most Circulated Air Incubators types have fan motors, heaters and thermostats built in to carefully manage temperature levels.
Still Air Egg Incubators
Still Air Incubators differ from circulated air incubators in that there is no movement of air.
They are simpler and usually cheaper, but because warm air rises the temperature varies with height, so it should be measured at the level of the top of the eggs.
Other Things To Consider:
Capacity
The amount of eggs an incubator can hold varies hugely with smaller incubators starting as low as seven eggs, and with some large professional-use ones being able to handle over 500 eggs!
Large-scale incubators are made for chickens more so than pigeons so avoid these.
Pigeon squabs require extremely close care and attention when being hand raised, giving the type of care necessary to 500 squabs would be an impossible feat which would result in a lot of casualties.
Egg Turning
Pigeon eggs need to be turned at least three times a day (an odd number of turns is often recommended). Their parents naturally turn them many times a day.
There are three ways of turning an egg in an incubator:
- Manually – manual incubators require you to periodically open the lid and turn each egg by hand. This is best used for a small number of eggs.
- Semi-Automatic Turning – Semi-automatic egg turning incubators make use of rods that pushes the eggs around. These simply require you to press the rod periodically to turn the eggs, making it much quicker than doing it manually.
- Fully Automatic Turning – Fully automatic egg turning incubators complete automate the whole egg turning process, once your fully automatic incubator is set up there is nothing you need to do until the eggs hatch. These are great for large numbers of squabs but are also very useful for anyone who wants to take a hands-off approach to egg incubation.
2 Great Pigeon Egg Incubators:
Incubating pigeon eggs isn’t a common practice, incubating chicken eggs is a very common practice.
For this reason almost all incubators are designed primarily for chicken eggs however most will cater for eggs of different sizes too.
Pigeon eggs are larger than quail eggs but smaller than most hen eggs, so an incubator with adjustable or small-egg settings should cope with them.
1. Brinsea Mini II Advance Automatic Incubator
Brinsea Mini II Advance Automatic Incubator
Check price on Amazon (opens in new tab)Brinsea have been making egg incubators for over 40 years, their expertise is clearly demonstrated in their Mini II Advance incubator which is one of the best small-scale incubators available.
Take a look at all of the features they have packed into it below:
| Brinsea Mini II Advance Incubator (opens in new tab) | |
| Made From Antimicrobial Plastics | ✓ |
| Fan Assisted Airflow | ✓ |
| Ventilation Control | ✓ |
| Digital Temperature Display | ✓ |
| Fully Automatic Egg Turning | ✓ |
| Hatch Countdown | ✓ |
| Periodic Egg Cooling | ✓ |
| Temperature Alarm | ✓ |
| Room Temperature Alarm | ✓ |
| High Visibility Tray | ✓ |
| External Water Top-Up | ✓ |
| 7 Hen Egg Disk* | ✓ |
| Humidity Control | ✓ |
| Guaranteed For 3 Years | ✓ |
*Chicken eggs are much bigger than pigeon eggs meaning you can fit up to 12 pigeon eggs in this incubator though having seen it in action a few times we recommend you don’t fill it to max capacity as there will be very little space available once the squabs hatch..
With digital temperature control and automatic rotation, there is very little human input required once the eggs have been set up within the incubator.
That said one drawback to be aware of with fully automatic incubators is that if something does go wrong you are less likely to notice it than you are with a manual incubator as egg checks happen somewhat infrequently so don’t forget to check on the eggs at least once daily.
Warning: There have been a few reports of chicks dying after squeezing their head through the space between the water tank and the lid. Pigeon squabs are much weaker than chicks and cannot walk about in the same way, so this is less likely to be an issue, but always remove newly hatched squabs promptly.
Some of the features of this incubator worth mentioning in more details include:
The optional periodic egg cooling mimics the natural hatching process. While pigeon parents are very attentive and rarely leave their eggs for long there may be brief periods where eggs are left unattended and allowed to cool somewhat.
The Brinsea Mini II Advance adds significant upgrades to the very popular original Brinsea Mini 7 egg incubator with the addition of electronic temperature controls, a fully digital control system, automatic turning, a hatching timer and temperature displays and alarms.
Brinsea have also produced a couple of alternative models that may better suit you, these include:
- The Brinsea Mini II EX (opens in new tab) – this has a capacity of up to 12 eggs, it also features automatic humidity control.
- The Brinsea Mini II Eco (opens in new tab) – this is a more basic version of the Mini II Advance, it requires manual egg turning and doesn’t have any digital display or controls on it instead it uses a glass thermometer for temperature checking. While it does have fan-assisted airflow, it does away with features such as a digital temperature display, auto egg turning and temperature alarms. This is a good choice for anyone who wants a simple incubator at an affordable price and is prepared to put a bit of time into doing regular checks.
The Brinsea Mini II models are made with antimicrobial plastic and, at the time of writing, come with three-year guarantees.
2. Hatchmate Automatic Egg Incubator
Hatchmate Automatic Egg Incubator
Check price on Amazon (opens in new tab)While it looks like a big ice cream tub the Hatchmate Incubator hides a lot inside its portable shell:
| Hatchmate Automatic Incubator (opens in new tab) | |
| Fan Assisted Airflow | ✓ |
| Digital Temperature Display | ✓ |
| Fully Automatic Egg Turning | ✓ |
| LED Temperature Control To 1/10th Of A Degree | ✓ |
| Easily Portable (13″ x 9″ x 7″ & weighs only 3.5lb) | ✓ |
| 1 Year Warranty | ✓ |
The Hatchmate Egg Incubator is designed for the backyard chicken farmer but it works perfectly for pigeon eggs too.
This unit can incubate up to 12 pigeon eggs at a time, offers an adjustable setting of temperature and humidity, and does most of the work for you, although you should still check the eggs every day.
The Hatchmate’s automatic egg turning system and fan-assisted airflow to ensure that the temperature is consistent provide optimum conditions for hatching at a very reasonable price point.
It comes with an assembly and operations manual, power cable, egg separation bars, a spare fuse, an egg turning frame, top shell, bottom shell, incubation grid and hatching grid.
Warning: There have been a few reports of excessive humidity with these incubators. To avoid this do not overfill the bottom shell with water (no more than 100ml), it is also a good idea to use a hygrometer to keep an eye on the humidity.
It’s super simple to assemble, simply pour 100 ml of water into the bottom shell then place the hatching grid feet down into the bottom shell, place the incubation grid on top followed by the egg turning frame. Then slot in the separation bars and add your fertilized eggs.
When placing your eggs in the turning frame make sure that the small point of the egg faces into the frame so that the frame can turn them left and right easily, failure to do this will make it far less effective.
Once this step is complete then place the top shell onto the bottom shell taking care to ensure that the turning pin slots into the slot on the turning frame.
Now you can plug the incubator in.
Related Article: The Warm Water Trick For Hatching Eggs Explained
You can adjust the temperature by double pressing the ‘set’ button and then pressing the ‘+’ or ‘-‘ buttons.
One of the drawbacks to this incubator is that it is cloudy meaning you can’t clearly see through it. Pigeon squabs require closer care and attention than a chicken’s chicks, so ideally it would be completely clear to allow you to keep an eye on them when they are hatching.
While you can see movement through it you won’t be able to clearly make out if cracks are forming in the egg without lifting the lid, doing this can compromise the humidity of the incubator (which stops the egg membranes drying out and helps the squab break out).
So bearing this is mind take care to keep an extremely close eye and ear on your incubator when your squabs are due to hatch.
The Hatchmate incubator is produced by the Backyard Farm company, there are quite a few similar alternatives available which all function in much the same way, some of the more popular alternatives include:
Last updated 31 October 2026 · Baby Pigeons