Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator

I bought this incubator from Craigslist the day my hen died suddenly. I had no experience with chickens and chicks and didn't even know who to turn to for help. I paid $40.00 for a used one since that was all the was available, but would have gladly paid full price. Every time I candled, the conditions where clear and when I calculated weight-loss, it was at Ideal every time! I recommend this incubator to anyone and everyone! This would be perfect for a school classroom and for all chicken enthusiasts! My Speedy's eggs hatched today with no real problems, she would have been very proud of me!

This was my first incubator and its really what got me started in the world of hatching and raising my own birds. Its very easy to use and comes fully pre-set from the factory for chicken eggs, and setting it up for a different kind of fowl is very quick and easy. Once running you can pretty much leave it to do its thing, no more checking 10x a day to make sure the temperature is right!

A perfect incubator for someone starting out, I can't say enough good things about it!

I have had nothing but success with my Brinsea Mini Advanced. This will be my fourth hatching season with it running for at least six consecutive weeks, and it still works great! (Although the fan does rattle a little more than it used to.)

I would highly recommend this to hobby hatchers anywhere!

I LOVE this incubator! It's a great incubator for the first-time hatcher! I was a bit nervous about hatching my own eggs, at first, but, as long as I followed the instructions that came with the unit, I and the eggs, were OK! I have to say, even though I've only used this incubator once, so far, I did have a 100% hatch rate! And all the hatchlings are now out in the grow-out coop, happy and healthy! I am very pleased with this product and I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to add a few birds to their flock! I plan on using this unit to replace my birds as they get older or need culling.

I got this for Christmas, and I have been wanting this for months, an dI finally got it, and I LOVE it! I am incubating Serama eggs right now, I am on day 3, and so far, so good! This is an amazing incubator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely a great buy! We had an excellent hatch without a humidity monitor, without monitoring temps, without stressing! We watched every moment of every egg hatching, and it was absolutely magical! I'd recommend making sure yours has the OUTSIDE water reservoir to fill. That made it so easy to see when we needed to add water. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I love this little incubator. I get excellent hatch rates with it. It even managed to hatch shipped northern pintail eggs. I've hatched quails, chickens and ducks with this incubator. I highly recommend it. It's very reliable and a set and forget type of incubator. Humidity holds steady. Easy to view into and witness the hatching process. I'm very pleased with it. It's relatively easy to clean. Moisture does sometimes build up in the turning mechanism and I've notice some rusting going on. But this is after 3 years of using it very heavily. Batch after batch. When I'm done with a hatch, I thoroughly clean it and leave the lid off so the moisture dries. It's never let me down and very well made. An overall excellent incubator to hatch a small batch of eggs!

I have 2 of these. Just love them. Brinsea has an online users forum for questions.
The humidity comes back up so quick one can remove the dome during hatching to take out broken shells.
Best small incubator for the money for folks who don't need to hatch a lot of chicks.
Easy to clean and store.
Best Regards,
Karen and the Light Sussex
in western PA, USA

A Brinsea Mini was my first incubator and it will be my last too. It is a high quality small incubator for the backyard hobbyist; no, you can't hatch a ton of chicks out of it, but it's ideal for folks who just want to keep small flock numbers up or have some fun with hatching eggs! Temperature control and turning modes are totally digital. Humidity is not, however I have found keeping the humidity up in a Mini simpler than trying to calibrate it in an incubator with automatic humidity - simply fill one of the wells up every couple days. The incubator is made of a tough and durable plastic, and makes it very easy to view the eggs as they hatch! It is easy to clean as well.

I have only ever had one issue with this incubator - after about 5 years of use, the transformer cord wore out. I ordered a new one for about $15 from Brinsea and now my baby's up and running again. Other than that, it has been perfect from the day I got it.

This is an excellent incubator for small hatches and classroom hatching.All you need to do is fill it with water every 3 days and it does everything else and you get to watch every minute of the chicks hatching.My lowest hatch rate was 85% and my highest was 100%.I would highly recommend this incubator to beginner chicken keepers or people who only want to hatch small numbers of chicks.

Great incubator and hatched all most of the eggs we incubated inside it.

3 years ago i decided to incubate eggs for the first time and wanted a small incubator, so this is what i got. i love the fact that you can watch the eggs hatch and the water is covered to keep chicks from drowning. i will never get another incubator unless i need to hatch a huge amount of eggs in that case i would most likely get another Brinsea incubator. I LOVE this incubator.

An excellent incubator. It provides a very stable environment, and is fantastically easy to use. It provides good hatch rates, even for birds with very high embryo mortality(like seramas.). My only complaint is that if drying chicks make a break for freedom, then their toes can get pinched. If the bottom half had higher sides, then this wouldn't be an issue. 10/10 would recommend.

I bought this little machine in my own country. The reviews were good which made my choice easier. The reason I wanted an incubator was because my pullets won't get broody.
I only hatch for myself to extend the flock and for some close friends. I love to see the whole process of laying in, candeling and then finally the first pipping sounds. Its a great machine if you don't want to much for hatching or for classes to see the whole process. I can recommend it to everyone.

Okay so I am new to this and I am not the best at remembering to do things regularly at the same time etc...this little machine took all the quesswork and regular maintenance out of it. I plugged it in and it was set to the right temperature. I put the egg turning disc (it comes with a seven egg standard large fowl disc) in and added water to the middle reservoir (one of the two chambers) and put my eggs in. Being a first timer, I had shipped eggs and I never let them 'rest'. I was excited and I just started right up. I had the incubator on for a day and a half before the eggs arrived and it maintained temperature with no problems. There is an alarm for letting you know if the temp. drops etc.

Long story short ...exactly 21 days later two little chicks came out with no issues. Most of the other eggs had no development in them and I think they can easily be blamed on three factors.
Newbie/shipping/fertility.

So I am really happy. Already ordered myself more eggs and I also ordered a second Brinsea.

My regret is not buying the Octagon right off the bat. I wish I could exchange two mini's in and take the Octagon 20.

The second one I bought doesn't have the 'advanced' part so I will have to manually turn etc. I also did buy a hygrometer this time around just to see how my humidity is. To be honest I forgot to fill the water pot up most of the time with my first hatch and it would be dry when I candled. (That was the only time I opened the incubator).


Just a side note, I purchased this with the classroom pack.

Not only was this incubator easy to use, sturdy, and fascinating to see the hatching up close and personal through the plastic, but Brinsea has excellent directions and information in the packaging.

I bought a second Brinsea...and had an issue which was superbly resolved by Rose Power at Brinsea. It has been a long time since I saw such excellent customer service.

I can heartily recommend this product.

I bought this incubator for my very first hatch and I am so incredibly happy with the results. I had 7 marans eggs shipped from Illinois to los angeles and when the box arrived, it was totally smashed. I was so afraid to open it. None of them were cracked but all the air cells were saddled and I totally forgot what I had read about "resting" the shipped eggs. So I just threw them in the incubator that night, with the turner on. I also turned on the cooling option after the first week, like the manual suggested. The temperature was never off by more than one degree for the entire 3 weeks. I thought maybe I would get 3 or 4 chicks out of the hatch but actually ended up with all 7!!! This little guy did all the work. I just programmed it like the manual said. I can't wait to see what my results will be for my second hatch!

This is a terrific incubator if you are looking to hatch a limited number of chicks. Just set the temperature digitally follow the directions for humidity, and you are good to go! Temp & humidity recover within seconds after opening. I love this incubator!

I wanted a small incubator to start out my hatching adventures. I also wanted one with a digitally controlled thermostat. I also wanted an autoturner. This little incubator fit the bill. I love the clear plastic dome when my eggs start to pip. I can move all around the unit and get a 360 degree view of the eggs and chicks when they start hatching. When I candle eggs and replace them back under the dome, the Brinsea Mini Advance can rebound the temps quickly. This incubator can hold 7 eggs with the autoturner in or 10 eggs with the autoturner taken out. (more if the eggs are small) I love the digital readout and everything is easy to set and adjust. You can set how often you want the eggs to turn. You can set an auto cool period to mimic a hen getting off the nest once a day. It has a high and low temp alarm. It will show if the unit has lost power during the incubation period. It has a day countdown timer and the autoturner can be set to turn off at day 18. I candle my eggs for the last time when the autoturner is off, fill both water chambers to increase humidity for hatch, turn the fat ends of the eggs out so I can see pips better, and the waiting really begins. The instruction booklet that comes with the unit is detailed but easy to understand.

My first hatch was 5 out of 7. One chick died at day 15 or so, and the other had severe cross beak and never pipped. My second batch, 7 out 7 hatched! I am very, very happy with this incubator and Brinsea as a company. I had an issue with a second order I placed with them, and they were very helpful when I called.
I am so happy with my little power house Brinsea I may purchase one of their larger incubators in the future, but the small size of Mini Advance will help keep me from becoming overrun with chickens for the present time.