Sorry for the losses, guys and gals, I can sure relate.
My last egg FINALLY hatched on day 23. Last night at 9pm nothing. I stood there looking gloomy at it sure that it was going to be an internal pip without an external zip egg. Finally carefully picked it up with the intention of candling it one last time. The moment I picked it up I hear this loud and indignant peeping coming from inside and the egg rocked in my hand.
I hastily apologized to it and carefully put it back in the mini Eco.
I was up at 2am and checked on the egg. Sure enough there was a good pip. Up at 8 this morning (not sleeping well due to egg watch, y'all know how it is) and sure enough, there was a fluff and dried chick blinking at me. So from pip to zip/hatch in 6 hours on three eggs, two under a broody hen and this one egg in the
Brinsea. Three eggs did not hatch. One destroyed when the lid came off on the
Brinsea while it was being moved, two died in the shell mid week.
About the
Brinsea. I had received a manual turn unit for Christmas last year and installed it. I had noticed that although the 'turner' which is in the tower that holds the automatic turner in the other units was installed correctly, the lid didn't seem to be fitting as tight. Granted my grip isn't what it used to be due to my serum negative RA but I have never had any problems before. While moving the incubator, the lid popped off causing the incubator to shift in my grasp. Two eggs wound up on the floor, one shattering immediately. The other suffered mortal fractures and the egg quit developing several days later. Two eggs landed on the table with extensive cracks in the shells but no bleeding or loss of fluid. The 6th eggs was intact and stayed in the incubator.
I immediately spackled the fractured eggs together with candle wax, even waxing over two small areas where shell was completely missing.
3 of the eggs survived to hatch out chicks although two had to be assisted. It was a labor of love.
Back to the
brinsea's manual turner. Today, with all the surviving chicks hatched, I tore into it and discovered that although put together properly, it overhung the bottom of the incubator almost an eighth of an inch. At this point I handed it over to my husband who examined it, disassembled it and used his lathe to take off the extra length of the gear that is supposed to mesh with the egg cradle gears.
I put it back together and bingo, perfect. The lid once again fit perfectly.
If anybody has a
Brinsea Mini Eco without an installed turner, and you add the manual turner to the unit make sure you check to make sure that the tower gear doesn't hang down below the edge of the lid/dome.
I cried for two days and had bad dreams about holding the smashed egg in my hand and the yolk and blood dripping off my fingers. I don't want anybody to experience that.
In the future if I have to move the incubator I'm going to play it safer and tape the lid down.
For now, my last hatch of the year is over, I have three chicks in the brooder and two under a hen and life is good.
It was funny watching the two four day olds checking out the new baby. It was like, well, I don't know what it is, it's smaller than us so it must be okay. And that was it. They are a threesome.
Pics later.
The 2 days olds are being sold today because I’ve had enough of their nonsense
....I left the large dial thermometer in there overnight without taping it down and it got stuck between the rails and popped the rails off.....all of them!
Those rails are interchangeable though, right? Hopefully they just popped off and didn’t wreck any turning motor components... 
