THE Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco Thread; Hatches, etc. (PICS)

[UrbanMamaHen]

Question for all you brinsea Eco owners.
I am curious if there are any main advantages of paying the extra $$ for the digital(advance) octagon 20.
It's such a huge price difference, and I am a big hands on person. I am looking for a incubator that is totally reliable, and will hold at least the 20 egg capacity.
I read earlier in posts from 2013 that people were having issues with temp flux when they rotated the incubator backwards.
Has anyone had this problem recently?

I am debating between the incukit from incubator ware house and brinsea Eco ....

I have an Mini Advance and two Octagon 20 Eco. I love the mini advance because it requires little "management" from me. I just set it, and fill it with water every few days, and that's pretty much it. The Eco requires daily turning, although I haven't tried incubating without turning to see how that affects the hatch rate. With the Eco, you have to calibrate the temperature accurately or you will have terrible hatches. This year, instead of calibrating the temperature with an external thermometer, I used the one that came with the incubator and have had 100% hatch rates so far. I also only turn the Eco twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Once you are used to the Eco, the manual turning is not a big deal, but it does require more attention. With one recent hatch, I forget the date I set the eggs as I've staggered two sets of eggs in the Eco. Even without adding water to both water wells, the chicks hatched with no problems. Regardless of the incubator brand/manufacturer, I've found that accurate temperature-control is most important. Personally, I have not found the Eco to have temperature fluctuation problems.

 

[Nksg75]

Ok thank you. I am just curious if the advance vs the Eco is really worth the $$.
I have no problem with being at home to Che k it, and tilt it, I just wanted to make sure that there is not any issues with reliability. I hover over my homade incubator all the time, it's addicting!!

 

[FridayYet]

If you are going to be home for 21 days straight, the Eco is fine. I have the advanced, with the turning cradle and the humidity pump. It gives me the freedom to leave for the day, or the weekend, and the incubator stays rock solid.

 

[rlhagan56]

HELP! Thank the lord I found this thread! I need help with my Brinsea Eco 20. I am using it for the first time. Calibrated the temp and it is steady at 100 consistently. I am trying to hatch Silkie shipped eggs and a few of my own. Today is day 16,I calibrated and put in a hygrometer before adding eggs and I am trying to keep it at 20 to 25 for humidity because these are shipped, and they came from a low altitude area (I am at 5800 ft).

All candled fine at day 7. I finally got my Spot Check to double check temps and here's what I found. the temp stayed at 99.5 to 100 in all areas of the Brinsea (with the Spot Check stuck through the vent hole), except the front row of eggs. It always read 94 to 96 which worried me but I didn't know if it was accurate and I didn't want to risk the other two rows of eggs getting cooked if I adjusted the temp up. So I waited for additional batteries. Day 14 and a new battery in the Spot Check it read the same low temp for the front row. Everything else still a proper temp. All the eggs were developing perfectly with proper air cells except the front row. All were clear, every one. So the Spot Check was correct. I was so upset because the front row of eggs were the ones I most anticipated.

Humidity now reads 14 so at day 16 I am not sure if I should go ahead and add water due to the circumstances of the shipped eggs and I am doing a dry hatch. Other shipped eggs from low altitudes I have tried are always failing because of high humidity.

Any advice? Anyone else have a problem with the front row reading a low temp? I only had the thought that it might involve the room temp. It is set up in my living room near an inside wall, and I make sure the room is constant and warm.

I never got through all the pages, only read to page 5. Guess I should add that I use aquarium tubing and a syringe to add very warm water.

 

[FridayYet]

How do your air cells look at that humidity? I'm almost as high as you, and have found that 35% is about the right humidity for me.

Shipped eggs often fail because of shipping damage and even more fail at the end due to the lower partial pressure of oxygen not being able to get through the shell to the membrane. Basically the chick runs out of oxygen just prior to hatch.

 

[rlhagan56]

My internet is just giving me fits today!
I know all about the difficulties with hatching shipped eggs, I was asking about the incubator and the difference in temperature. It wasn't coincidence that only the front row, the same row that measured a lower temperature, were the eggs that quit.

I got thrown out again before I finished. My air cells are right where they should be, I like to keep things around 25 for the shipped eggs.

 

[FridayYet]

HELP! Thank the lord I found this thread! I need help with my Brinsea Eco 20. I am using it for the first time. Calibrated the temp and it is steady at 100 consistently. I am trying to hatch Silkie shipped eggs and a few of my own. Today is day 16,I calibrated and put in a hygrometer before adding eggs and I am trying to keep it at 20 to 25 for humidity because these are shipped, and they came from a low altitude area (I am at 5800 ft).

All candled fine at day 7. I finally got my Spot Check to double check temps and here's what I found. the temp stayed at 99.5 to 100 in all areas of the Brinsea (with the Spot Check stuck through the vent hole), except the front row of eggs. It always read 94 to 96 which worried me but I didn't know if it was accurate and I didn't want to risk the other two rows of eggs getting cooked if I adjusted the temp up. So I waited for additional batteries. Day 14 and a new battery in the Spot Check it read the same low temp for the front row. Everything else still a proper temp. All the eggs were developing perfectly with proper air cells except the front row. All were clear, every one. So the Spot Check was correct. I was so upset because the front row of eggs were the ones I most anticipated.

Humidity now reads 14 so at day 16 I am not sure if I should go ahead and add water due to the circumstances of the shipped eggs and I am doing a dry hatch. Other shipped eggs from low altitudes I have tried are always failing because of high humidity.

Any advice? Anyone else have a problem with the front row reading a low temp? I only had the thought that it might involve the room temp. It is set up in my living room near an inside wall, and I make sure the room is constant and warm.

I never got through all the pages, only read to page 5. Guess I should add that I use aquarium tubing and a syringe to add very warm water.

My internet is just giving me fits today!
I know all about the difficulties with hatching shipped eggs, I was asking about the incubator and the difference in temperature. It wasn't coincidence that only the front row, the same row that measured a lower temperature, were the eggs that quit.

Sorry - I was responding to the section above where you were asking advice on humidity, so I asked about the air cells. Guess you only wanted help on the temps in one row, which is a problem I'm not familiar with. I do rotate my eggs every candling though, from center to edges and back to compensate for any potential warm/cool spots.

Altitude change can also cause huge problems, which you probably already know about as well. I was suggesting that it may be a cause of your poor hatches, not necessarily the past humidity, which was another reason I asked about your air cells.

Good luck with your hatch.

 

[rlhagan56]

Don't misunderstand, I really appreciate you taking time to offer advice. This is just the first time I've used the Brinsea incubator. I went ahead and added water to get it to 25% humidity again. I probably didn't write my post very easy to figure out.

 

[WVduckchick]

Don't misunderstand, I really appreciate you taking time to offer advice.  This is just the first time I've used the Brinsea incubator.  I went ahead and added water to get it to 25% humidity again. I probably didn't write my post very easy to figure out.  

Is it possible that the lid is not closing completely on the side nearest the row that is reading lower temp? Maybe it is getting more air flow somehow and keeping it cooler?

 

[RubyNala97]

Question for all you brinsea Eco owners.
I am curious if there are any main advantages of paying the extra $$ for the digital(advance) octagon 20.
It's such a huge price difference, and I am a big hands on person. I am looking for a incubator that is totally reliable, and will hold at least the 20 egg capacity.
I read earlier in posts from 2013 that people were having issues with temp flux when they rotated the incubator backwards.
Has anyone had this problem recently?

I am debating between the incukit from incubator ware house and brinsea Eco ....

Ok thank you. I am just curious if the advance vs the Eco is really worth the $$.
I have no problem with being at home to Che k it, and tilt it, I just wanted to make sure that there is not any issues with reliability. I hover over my homade incubator all the time, it's addicting!!

I have the eco and I bought the cradle too. The ONLY reason I would get the advanced would be for the humidity pump. I really struggle with humidity, especially at lockdown, with the Eco. It likes lower humidity and I like higher humidity! I don't like having to remove the whole tray to add water every other day and lockdown can be a nightmare for me. Also, I'm not crazy about the cradle. I have bantam eggs and they slip around in the rails and I don't think they get turned efficiently. I'm actually not using the cradle at all with my current batch and doing the turning by hand. I like using my own calibrated thermo's & hygro's so that's a plus for the Eco.