I have not seen a lot of threads about the Brinsea Octagon Advance EX with the auto humidity pump so I thought I would start mine and hopefully hear from other users.
So after wishing, hoping, crying, begging, praying, saving, blackmailing, bargaining and throwing tantrums, I finally got a Brinsea. I decided to go with the fully automatic because I really just wanted a "set it and forget it" experience. I have been using a Little Giant and I had moderate success with it but honestly trying to maintain the heat and humidity was driving me CRAZY.
First off, I really think Brinsea can afford to do a professional "how to set-up" video. I didn't find the instructions clear to follow and I was afraid to ruin such an expensive machine before I could even get to use it. To make matters worse, the "techs" at Brinsea were quite condescending and definitely need better people skills but, I digress
Secondly, when I called Brinsea (again) to let them know the humidity pad was touching the eggs, she told me I was only supposed to put 16 eggs in it and the eggs should not touch the pad. WHAT!!! Where did it say that in the brochure? Blast, my dream machine is not turning out to be dreamy at all :-(
What I really wanted to do was incubate Trader Joe eggs. I have read all the success stories here on BYC but I have only been able to successfully hatch two; Miracle who is an absolute egg laying machine and Fluffy who unfortunately did not survive (my fault, the heat lamp was too close boohoohoo).
Anyway, I finally set (then re-set) the eggs as best as I could so they would not touch the pad. I set 12 Trader Joe eggs, 8 from my own assorted flock and 5 from a friend (not even sure if these are fertile). I candled on day 7 and one of the TJ eggs had a blood ring which I promptly removed. All the other eggs were fertile and progressing nicely. My friend's eggs are dark and I couldn't really see anything. Candled again at 14 days and still the eggs looked OK to me (maybe wishful thinking).
TODAY is finally LOCK DOWN day and I'm so excited. I candled a few of the eggs and again, they looked like they should and nothing smelled bad. So 25 went in initially and 24 made it to lock down. I had to put some eggs on top of other eggs because I couldn't fit the eggs in and I didn't want them too tight that the chicks will not be able to zip successfully.
By the way, apart from my initial frustrations, this incubator has been amazing at keeping both the temperature and the humidity perfectly. I feel like I can set it and return on day 18 just for lock down. The extra money I paid for the pump is absolutely worth it. If all the TJ eggs hatch, I will kiss, hmm, my mean rooster LOL (he might peck my eyes out but oh well).
So wish me luck as I drive my family crazy in the next few days. I will post pictures in the next post.
Sorry, if I have rambled on too much but I'm cuckoo LOL.
So after wishing, hoping, crying, begging, praying, saving, blackmailing, bargaining and throwing tantrums, I finally got a Brinsea. I decided to go with the fully automatic because I really just wanted a "set it and forget it" experience. I have been using a Little Giant and I had moderate success with it but honestly trying to maintain the heat and humidity was driving me CRAZY.
First off, I really think Brinsea can afford to do a professional "how to set-up" video. I didn't find the instructions clear to follow and I was afraid to ruin such an expensive machine before I could even get to use it. To make matters worse, the "techs" at Brinsea were quite condescending and definitely need better people skills but, I digress
Secondly, when I called Brinsea (again) to let them know the humidity pad was touching the eggs, she told me I was only supposed to put 16 eggs in it and the eggs should not touch the pad. WHAT!!! Where did it say that in the brochure? Blast, my dream machine is not turning out to be dreamy at all :-(
What I really wanted to do was incubate Trader Joe eggs. I have read all the success stories here on BYC but I have only been able to successfully hatch two; Miracle who is an absolute egg laying machine and Fluffy who unfortunately did not survive (my fault, the heat lamp was too close boohoohoo).
Anyway, I finally set (then re-set) the eggs as best as I could so they would not touch the pad. I set 12 Trader Joe eggs, 8 from my own assorted flock and 5 from a friend (not even sure if these are fertile). I candled on day 7 and one of the TJ eggs had a blood ring which I promptly removed. All the other eggs were fertile and progressing nicely. My friend's eggs are dark and I couldn't really see anything. Candled again at 14 days and still the eggs looked OK to me (maybe wishful thinking).
TODAY is finally LOCK DOWN day and I'm so excited. I candled a few of the eggs and again, they looked like they should and nothing smelled bad. So 25 went in initially and 24 made it to lock down. I had to put some eggs on top of other eggs because I couldn't fit the eggs in and I didn't want them too tight that the chicks will not be able to zip successfully.
By the way, apart from my initial frustrations, this incubator has been amazing at keeping both the temperature and the humidity perfectly. I feel like I can set it and return on day 18 just for lock down. The extra money I paid for the pump is absolutely worth it. If all the TJ eggs hatch, I will kiss, hmm, my mean rooster LOL (he might peck my eyes out but oh well).
So wish me luck as I drive my family crazy in the next few days. I will post pictures in the next post.
Sorry, if I have rambled on too much but I'm cuckoo LOL.
