Hello! To answer your questions here: The evaporation block should be left in. Its purpose is to raise the humidity, which is especially important for hatching.
The cleaning solution is not sold in the US. It is still mentioned in the manual since all of our products are manufactured in the UK...
So if the humidity isn't getting high enough with water alone then adding a dish or a sponge could do the trick. Make sure that the sponge is in the water well but sticking out into the air slightly. This will allow it to draw up water and increase the water surface area. Let us know if you have...
Did you candle before lockdown? Did you see anything moving?
Lockdown for duck eggs is typically around day 25/26, so locking down late may have contributed to something happening to the eggs.
A late hatch is typically a temperature issue. Incorrect humidity can cause problems, but it won't cause the hatch to be late by a week.
Short instances of cooling (like when you lift the lid to turn the eggs) also wouldn't cause that much of a delay.
Are you using a trusted secondary...
So just to clarify a few things I read in this thread, the turning is manual unless you get the optional automatic turning cradle (which is $89.99 on our website). You can read the temperature with the glass thermometer inside the incubator, and the temp can be adjusted with a screw. The...
If an egg has externally pipped don't open the lid! You can add water through the external fill up point on the Brinsea by filling it past the line on the side.
The temperature of an egg will start out at the incubator air temperature, once it stabilizes after setting. There will be little difference between egg and air until at least half way through incubation but then the metabolic heat from the developing chick will start to show as a small increase...
I can't answer the question about infrared thermometers (although that is a super interesting idea), but I can tell you that the most accurate place to measure the temperature in a Brinsea is where an egg would be at egg-height. So in a Mini you could put your thermometer in between two eggs at...