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

[immyjay54]

Okay folks, I just finished hatching 6 out of 7 eggs in my Brinsea 20 ECO. I've used it several times now for incubation but this is the first time I used it for hatching and had no problem what so ever. I don't like it as well for hatching as my Styrofoam ones though because of the size. I had no problem keeping up the humidity and I do have coal furnace for heat and my house is awfully dry.
For incubation, I have sponge cut to fit into the slots and add water you can use one or both of the slots. Sometimes if I fill both slots it will bring it up to high for incubation. I try to keep it around 50 or so for incubation. I do lift tray about every third day and add water.
For hatching, I add the paper towels as shown in the picture. I use a straw to put through the hole in top and a shringe to make sure I keep the front paper towel really wet. It will leak out the little holes but I just put something under Brinsea to suck up the water. My humidity stayed above 70 throughout the hatching process. Had no problems at all. I jused one paper towel folded in half then half again in each side, soaked them before putting them in then just each day added a little water to just the front one.
Hope this helps.



Just took these out of mine yesterday. ha,ha

 

[Contrastphoto]

Thanks for posting. I have hatched twice in my Eco, but I really like what you did here with the sponges and paper towels. Thanks for sharing!
Also, how open do you keep the little hole/slot on the lid?

Okay folks, I just finished hatching 6 out of 7 eggs in my Brinsea 20 ECO. I've used it several times now for incubation but this is the first time I used it for hatching and had no problem what so ever. I don't like it as well for hatching as my Styrofoam ones though because of the size. I had no problem keeping up the humidity and I do have coal furnace for heat and my house is awfully dry.
For incubation, I have sponge cut to fit into the slots and add water you can use one or both of the slots. Sometimes if I fill both slots it will bring it up to high for incubation. I try to keep it around 50 or so for incubation. I do lift tray about every third day and add water.
For hatching, I add the paper towels as shown in the picture. I use a straw to put through the hole in top and a shringe to make sure I keep the front paper towel really wet. It will leak out the little holes but I just put something under Brinsea to suck up the water. My humidity stayed above 70 throughout the hatching process. Had no problems at all. I jused one paper towel folded in half then half again in each side, soaked them before putting them in then just each day added a little water to just the front one.
Hope this helps.

 

[immyjay54]

Thanks for posting. I have hatched twice in my Eco, but I really like what you did here with the sponges and paper towels. Thanks for sharing!
Also, how open do you keep the little hole/slot on the lid?

Maybe 1/4 of the way. I slide it all the way to right to put straw in to ad water for last 3 days if needed then put it back to about 1/4 open. If you go to my site, and look on incubator page, you can see that my humidity was at 71 when I took the picture. I had not problem with humidity at all and as said earlier, my house is awful dry with coal furnace. My temperature in house changes a lot. Anyone who has a coal furnace will know this. Sometimes 80+ in house sometimes 50's. lol Still my little Brinsea just keeps on pluggin along. lol. I think folks worry to much sometimes. Think of what the old hen that steals her nest out somewhere does with her eggs. lol

 

[Contrastphoto]

So true about the worrying thing! My DH keeps telling me to stop worrying! I have just let it do it's thing the past two hatch, but I have Isbar eggs in there now and they cost a pretty penny! I just want to make sure I am doing all the right things.

Maybe 1/4 of the way. I slide it all the way to right to put straw in to ad water for last 3 days if needed then put it back to about 1/4 open. If you go to my site, and look on incubator page, you can see that my humidity was at 71 when I took the picture. I had not problem with humidity at all and as said earlier, my house is awful dry with coal furnace. My temperature in house changes a lot. Anyone who has a coal furnace will know this. Sometimes 80+ in house sometimes 50's. lol Still my little Brinsea just keeps on pluggin along. lol. I think folks worry to much sometimes. Think of what the old hen that steals her nest out somewhere does with her eggs. lol

 

[haTHOR]

Happy you had a great hatch. I've cut up 3 sponges now and they are laid all in the bottom of the bator, plus an extremely absorbent cloth. I've hatched hundreds of birds in the past--not my first rodeo.Those of us with extremely low humidity aren't imagining the issue, I assure you.

 

[immyjay54]

I have 3 bators. One is the 1588 Genesis one is the 2362N Hova Bator and the third is the Brinsea 20 ECO. I do have the auto egg turners in the stryrofoam ones and I turn the Brinsea by hand. I rock it all the way back at 9 AM, all the way to the front at 5 PM and all the way back at 1 AM and so on and so on. lol
I started incubating eggs early last year and it would always just be hit and miss. I've paid well over $100.00 per dozen for some of the eggs that I've gotten. I was ready to give up then I ordered my Brinsea I believe in December 2011. Now, I incubate in the Brinsea unless I have to many eggs then I use it and the Genesis 1588 for incubating and the 2362N for hatching. My hatch rate has really improved. Especially with shipped eggs. Make sure you let your shipped eggs set at least 12 - 24 hours before putting them in incubator. I try to keep my humidity between 40 - 55 for incubating and above 65 for hatching. When I put them in lock down in the styrofoam bators, I just fill all the places in the plastic tray with warm water, put in the eggs, close lid and let it go. That water will hold for the 3 - 4 days for hatching. I've never had to add sponges etc to my styrofoam ones for hatching and humidity is always over 70.

 

[haTHOR]

OK, an update--have had RH at 70% for 4 hours now. HERE"S WHAT I DID (besides ALL the efforts listed above, including the humidifier right next to it.)

Because I had to put SO much water in the bottom of the bator, it was leaking out the four holes on the bottom. I put a thick towel under it to catch the spilling out. (% was still dropping/hanging at 60-64%.) As it got damper, I bunched it up to avoid having a real wet towel on the bookcase wood. Once the towel got pushed up against all those little leak holes, humidity stabilized. I think we were needing to close them up (of course the top vent is closed completely too).

Fingers crossed. I am NOT a worrier, but really do want to see humidity stable in lockdown, and above 64%.

 

[AriLovesChickens]

I had a couple of sponge pieces in the slots and then I put another piece right under the hole. I usually didn't have a problem with it leaking, unless I added too much water. I kept the humidity at 60-70%.

 

[serinat]

I'm starting my first hatch of the year tonight - 30 large fowl eggs (24 Buff Orpington, 6 Buckeye) from our own flock. I'll toss the clears in a week or so. I have not stuffed this incubator before (my first Brinsea Octagon Eco hatch was last year - 13 turkey eggs, 5 chicken eggs, no stuffing required) so we'll see how it goes. I'm not looking forward to raising the babies - love it when the broody moms take care of that - but we need more layers, so I can't wait until May or June for the broodies to get going.

I am excited to see the little fluff balls, though. So cute!

 

[haTHOR]

i thought me getting 25 in there was stuffing it. do you have a lot of pullet eggs or? i don't know what either of those breeds' eggs really look like but i guess i assumed BOs would be big!