anyone use a Brinsea Mini Advance fully digital 7 egg incubator?

[bellebouche]

Very brief chick update... all doing well!

After just 5 days I'm starting to see some real feathers develop now and some unmistakeble brahma characteristics.

They've all had their first day outdoors today - very comical watching them all zip around, chase bugs and explore the feel of grass under their feet.

 

[wegotchickens]

How easy was the Brinsea to clean up after the hatch?

 

[bellebouche]

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No real problem. There is a small amount of dust/down that that has accumulated up inside the heater matrix/fan unit but the instructions explain how to clean that down periodically.

 

[trilyn]

I'm glad this thread was started, this is the exact incubator that I was looking at. I am going to go with this model, seven eggs at a time will be a good way to stay out of trouble! lol I haven't checked out the blog yet, next on my list. Congrats on a complete hatch!! Yay!

 

[dougslager]

We started our first batch of eggs with just 5 in this incubator. The eggs are not rolling - the disk is turning back and forth, but the eggs don't roll at all. We think they might all be too big to touch the bottom. But they are the only size we ever get with our hens.

We're just going to keep water in 1 side of the water tank - if we have bad hatch results then we'll weigh the eggs to check humidity levels.

Does anybody else have problems with the eggs not rolling back and forth?

 

[bellebouche]

Quote:
Yes, me. The standard 7-egg tray seems poorly suited to larger eggs.

I've got a set in now, here's a picture.

The egg labelled "B1" at the top of that frame isn't always rolling.

I've tried to alternate the eggs with pointed ends in and then out and that has improved things a bit but large eggs don't always roll cleanly in the tray.

dougslager if none of yours are rotating then I'd be interested to know the circumference of the widest part of the egg and their height?

Please forgive a perhaps obvious question but is the egg tray the right way up ?
Do any of the eggs rotate if you wiggle the tray by hand?
What orientation do you have the eggs in (Pointed end outwards or inwards?
Have you tried changing the direction of one or two eggs?
Have you marked each egg so that you can accurately benchmark just how far it is moving?


You might try and increase the rotation interval to 13/15 seconds - I've found a longer rotation interval sometimes helps stuck eggs catch.


You'll have to intervene somehow as without turning you're going to risk a poor hatch. In the event that none of the ideas work and automated turning fails with your eggs then all you can really do is revert to using it like an 'ECO' variant and roll them by hand a few times a day. As such you'll have to lift the lid and that'll mean fluctuations in temperature and humidty.

 

[dougslager]

None of ours are rotating. I guess they're too large but we sure don't think that our eggs are all that big. Jane did mark all of them and they don't turn a single mm.

They definitely are not touching the bottom through the small oval holes. I'll need to find a good fabric tape so I can measure the circumference, I guess. Maybe we can talk Brinsea into coming out with a 5 or 6 egg tray for those of us with larger eggs. We only have 3 hens left (a raccoon found our chickens awhile back) and they all lay nice sized eggs - seems silly to buy new hens so that I can get smaller eggs so that I can incubate them!

Until something else comes up, we'll follow the directions for the Mini ECO.

You had good questions and we have looked at (and tried) all the things you've mentioned so far. Somebody said that 140mm is the maximum circumference but I can't find that in any of the Brinsea documentation.

Thanks so much, Bellebouche!

 

[bellebouche]

Quote:
This is the strangest thing and I can not imagine how at least some part of the egg is not in contact with the base of the incubator. After your last post I'd have bet dollars to donuts you had the tray in upside down.

Any chance of a picture?

Quote:
A piece of string will do, just wrap it around the widest part of the egg, mark where it overlaps and then measure between the marks on the unravelled string.


Quote:
I'd think it unlikely as the tooling costs for one of those inserts would be pretty significant. If you knew you'd always have large or unusally shaped eggs going in you could modify the aperture on the insert with a dremel type tool but you'd have to be fairly precise and sand it to the same finish as the manufactured piece. Not easy.


Quote:
It's not in their documentation, I'd mentioned that earlier in this thread, based on what I was seeing with my eggs. 140mm circumference eggs weighing in at 69 g just about turn. My 'B1' egg above is 143mm, 74g and it doesn't rotate well.

 

[dougslager]

You're absolutely correct - I had the tray in upside down. "Shiny side up" isn't adequate for somebody who's as blind as I am.

Now the eggs are rolling all over the place, hopefully not too much.

Now when I look at the pictures I see the "ribs" on the tray all pointing up. I don't know why I was so locked into putting the "ribs" down - I guess it just seemed the logical thing to do so that the eggs would be cupped in the holders rather than just rolling around.

Thanks!!

 

[bellebouche]

Quote:
bellebouche wrote: This is the strangest thing and I can not imagine how at least some part of the egg is not in contact with the base of the incubator. After your last post I'd have bet dollars to donuts you had the tray in upside down.

Quote:
Ahhh.. no probs, easily done I guess and glad it's all sorted now.

It's high time there was a Brinsea Mini FAQ based on real world experience like this. I shall knock one up for all three models. The Brinsea Mini ECO, the Brinsea Mini Advance and the newly announced Brinsea Mini Advance Ex.

I'd still appreciate the key dimensions of you eggs (height, weight and circumference if you have them) as it'll all help towards a FAQ document.