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

[Hawkeye95]

Hi Hawkeye,
If you bought your Brinsea new, there should be instructions with it as far as the way to set up the Brinsea. As for the eggs, yes you want the large end of the egg up, if you don't have enough to fill the rows, you may need to put something in there to hold them close enough together to get them to stand up. Set the Brinsea up first without your eggs to check your temp and humidity. If you don't have, you need a temp/humidity reader which can be gotten from Wal Mart. I had to add water at the end of each 3rd day to beginning of 4th day. Believe me, it seems that you learn something new with each time that you do a hatch. Experience is the best teacher. Learn from mistakes. I've made quite a few and hopefully have learned from them. lol

Okay, since I am sick today and laying around, I went and read thru the entire thread. Lots of great info, and learned a lot. I went to Amazon and ordered a temp/RH reader that is supposed to be for humidors, but had excellent reviews and can be salt calibrated. I knew nothing about this! So that will be interesting when it comes in. I turned on my Brinsea yesterday and with NO water it read 101. I then filled one channel and it still read 101-- on the glass therm. I figured that was too high, since I can't test it with anything else. I opened it up and turned it down to 100. I was going to go a bit lower, but then I read about you all saying that the egg trays ran a bit cooler. So now I'm thinking I'll leave the glass therm reading at 100??? Yes?? Or No?? My new digital therm/RH won't be here until Tuesday, but I think I'm going to load the incubator tomorrow morning. Do you think the temp is still too high, though?? It worries me to have the glass reading at 100.

 

[AriLovesChickens]

Now I'm rather confused. Whenever I've seen pictures of eggs being marked (X/O) for incubation, they appear to be lying on their sides. But some of these pics have the eggs straight up and down. I just set eggs a little while ago, and now I wonder if I need to put them up and down. Wouldn't they lie more flat under a hen?

I've only used this incubator once (and only hatched once) and I wasn't quite comfortable turning the whole thing. I turned the eggs individually. I'm afraid if I turn the unit, I'll end up with water all over or eggs banging together. What arrangement have people had the best luck with? I'm afraid I don't have time (nor the attention span, with two young kids trying to kill each other) to read through the whole thread...
ETA - Finally got a chance to read, and I found some answers on page 14. I will attempt to do some rearranging in the morning!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Now I'm rather confused. Whenever I've seen pictures of eggs being marked (X/O) for incubation, they appear to be lying on their sides. But some of these pics have the eggs straight up and down. I just set eggs a little while ago, and now I wonder if I need to put them up and down. Wouldn't they lie more flat under a hen?

I've only used this incubator once (and only hatched once) and I wasn't quite comfortable turning the whole thing. I turned the eggs individually. I'm afraid if I turn the unit, I'll end up with water all over or eggs banging together. What arrangement have people had the best luck with? I'm afraid I don't have time (nor the attention span, with two young kids trying to kill each other) to read through the whole thread...

ETA - Finally got a chance to read, and I found some answers on page 14. I will attempt to do some rearranging in the morning!

I did the same and read thru the thread. There doesn't seem to be many people on here anymore. I've probably no more knowledge than you, but I can tell you what I read! In the Brinsea manual-- it shows that the big end of the eggs go up-- the little pointy end goes down. Apparently, the air sac is in the larger end and needs to be upright. I placed my eggs in my Brinsea this way as well. Even if you don't have an automatic turner (I don't) you just tip the incubator along the sides to rock it forward and back. Pretty easy. I have water in one chamber and so far, no spills. But I didn't over fill it either. When I was practicing with it a couple of days ago, I filled the chamber up all the way and immediately had water leak out when I rocked it forward. Bad news-- water all over the floor. So I filled the reservoir only half way and that worked. I didn't read that anywhere in this thread to do that, though. None of my eggs are hitting each other by the machine being rocked. I did put in a paper towel to wedge in a row where I only have two eggs in it-- I didn't want them falling over or hitting each other.

 

[AriLovesChickens]

In one picture, the Eco was sitting tilted one section (1/8) from level. That is how I currently have mine, which puts the eggs at 45* since they were placed upright. Nothing is spilling this way. I wonder if that is as far as it's meant to be turned...?

 

[silkielover5]

im so worried! on friday we picked up my first shipped eggs from the post office and they mentioned that they were left in the van over night! im worried none will hatch!

 

[immyjay54]

I haven't checked into this thread for a couple of weeks and I'm sorry. Don't know if this will help you all or not. I've used the Hova Bator for a little over a year and didn't seem to be doing real well with shipped eggs so I bought the Brinsea 20 ECO. I didn't get the turner. I did just what it said. I set my eggs up on end pointed end down. If they didn't fill the rack from end to end I took a paper towel and folded it to fill the space so the eggs wouldn't tumble over. I put sponge (cut to size of trough) in the trough and filled 3/4 to top. The sponges seem to hold the water a little longer. Still I have to lift tray and add water about every 3 - 4 days. I do keep check on the humidity. If it goes below 41, that is when I add water. The first time I used it, I set 15 shipped eggs and 3 of my own. I turn the incubator 9 AM, 5 PM, and 1 AM. I put it all the way back then next turn is all the way forward, next turn all the way back etc. I have a gadget that I bought from Wal Mart that measures temp/humidity. It reads 99 and the glass one on the top reads 100 - 101. My humidity runs from 39 - 57. With my first hatch, on day 18 I moved the eggs to my genesis 1588 to hatch. There were 3 of the shipped eggs that were clear. I let them in the Brinsea just in case. The other 12 shipped eggs and my 3 test eggs went into lock down in genesis. On day 21 they started right on time, within 26 hours, I had 10 of the shipped eggs hatched and my 3 all hatched. The other 2 shipped eggs, one pipped but chick was upside down and did no more than 1 pip the other egg did nothing. Chick was fully formed but dead in the egg. Don't know what happened with it. This was the best hatch I have ever had with shipped eggs.

I have RIR and NH eggs in there right now. The RIR's go into lock down tomorrow night so I will see how many are viable. The NH are a week behind. I haven't hatched in the Brinsea yet. So far, I'm liking the Brinsea and have no problem with water spilling out etc. I hope this helps.
Jim

 

[immyjay54]

I just finished another batch of eggs with my Brinsea. I put 8 New Hampshire eggs in there, on day 14 I had 1 egg that was clear. On day 18 I took them out and candled them and 1 was iffy and 7 looked good. Today I had 6 little fuzzy butts jump right out of the eggs. I have had no problems yet with my Brinsea 20 ECO. I do take the eggs out of the Brinsea and put them in my Hova Bator in an egg carton to do the hatching.
Jim

 

[kuntrygirl]

I just found this thread. I have eggs that are scheduled to hatch this weekend. I'm a newbie when it comes to using an incubator. I have A LOT to learn.

 

[Contrastphoto]

Getting ready to set my third set of eggs using the Brinsea Octagon 20! Works like a charm!

 

[Mahonri]

Hey did you all notice that Brinsea is offering a Mini Advance Incubator for the Easter Hatch as a contest prize?

Come check us out and join!