Hi BYCers, I recently purchased a Brinsea maxi advance. I’m new to hatching eggs and this will be my first try. I would like advice on whether I should adjust the temperature myself or whether I should trust the manufacturers default settings. I’m doing a practice incubation with fake eggs right now. I’ve placed 3 temp and humidity monitors inside the incubator and for the temperature all of them consistently are reading lower than 99.5. (That is the default for poultry recommended in the Brinsea manual.) I’ve kept records and the warmest temperature I’ve recorded is 99.3, with an average of 97.5 to 99.0 depending on the thermometer. The incubator has been running for 6 days now. It is in our dinning room on a draft free shelf, out of the reach of any sunlight. The room averages about 67 degrees. Should I increase the temp in the incubator to get my thermometers reading closer to 99.5, or should I trust the Brinsea default settings? I’m especially worried about night when the incubator seems to drop into the upper 98 degree range. Have others had this problem with brinseas and if yes, can you share your experiences- especially how hatch rates have varied with temperature.
We will be receiving hatching eggs in April so I have plenty of time to practice. But with shipped eggs and my lack of experience, and thus a likely lower hatch rate to start with, I really want to get the incubation conditions as perfect as possible.
On a happier note I’ve been very successful monitoring and changing the humidity and feel confident I can get the right humidity, even during lockdown and with our dry air.
We will be receiving hatching eggs in April so I have plenty of time to practice. But with shipped eggs and my lack of experience, and thus a likely lower hatch rate to start with, I really want to get the incubation conditions as perfect as possible.
On a happier note I’ve been very successful monitoring and changing the humidity and feel confident I can get the right humidity, even during lockdown and with our dry air.
You can cover the incubator. I would try to set it a little higher. You should be ok with that temperature but the chicks may hatch a day or two late. Good luck and have fun...
. Ah well, I don't need to hatch that many at a time, anyway. Will fix it sometime, but in the meantime I am using the maxi. I got it to go with my mini, which I use to hatch chicks in the elementary classrooms. The mini set at 99.5 hatches for me spot on expected. The maxi at 99.5 for me felt a little cooler in temp and showed slower egg development. Both are in my basement at a steady 65 degrees. The mini has never wavered. The maxi showed a tendency to drop temps a small amount on me. I put a small towel around it like a cape, no more issues with lower temp alarm, but it did seem to run a little lower in temp overall compared to the mini. My hatch is hatching now and looking good, but 2 days later than the mini. I bumped up the temp to 100.5 for hatch as they just seemed behind and the chicks are pipping and hatching and looking good. Some of the delay was likely due to an untimely power outage we experienced, but the chicks in the mini hatched on time, the maxi was delayed.
