Brinsea Mini Advance and humidity

[Mahen100]

Gosh, sorry to see a post here that did not get any answers. I guess the posters here, including me, had not checked this thread after hatching our chicks. I really don't know about the effects of altitude on the Brinsea..and I am just 300 ft. above sea level here. I do think the helpful folk at Brinsea could answer your question though. I got prompt replies from a very helpful gal named "Rose" when I had occasion to contact them. http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/help.html Did you try again and did you have better luck? I hope so.

Best Wishes

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

I have 6 Brinsea Mini Advances, the are great little workhorses but they really hold the humidity. Reduce the humidity by taking all water out of the yellow cylinder. I can add a teaspoon of water and it will shoot right up to 50% within minutes. The first 1-18 days I would add ateensy bit of water every other day or just do a dry incubation until lockdown. Be careful at lockdown, the instructions say to fill both sides of the water well to the top--don't do it--your humidity will shoot up to 90-100%. Put no more than 1/3 full in both wells for about a 65% humidity. I've had these Brinsea's 4 years and love them but do know you have to watch that humidity. All 6 of mine bought staggered over a few years all behave the same so if you are using the mini advance I'm confident I'm giving you good advice. Good luck on your hatch and keep us posted!

This is exactely what I have been wondering about the brinsea mini advance. I am about to put in silkie eggs and was told the humidity should only be 20-35 during incubation and around 60-70 during lockdown. Alot of ppl have told me they have the best success with dry hatches. Alot of this advice was with the LG still air incubator, but I plan to use both that one and the brinsea mini advance, and was wondering if I should follow the same advice and not use any water at all until lockdown? I havent gotten alot of advice for the brinsea, except that i should fill only half for the 1-18 days but I was searching around to see if thats really best with these little bators or if I should use no water at all. Have you had the best results with or without water? And how did you check on the humidity with these?

 

[popsicle]

This is exactely what I have been wondering about the brinsea mini advance. I am about to put in silkie eggs and was told the humidity should only be 20-35 during incubation and around 60-70 during lockdown. Alot of ppl have told me they have the best success with dry hatches. Alot of this advice was with the LG still air incubator, but I plan to use both that one and the brinsea mini advance, and was wondering if I should follow the same advice and not use any water at all until lockdown? I havent gotten alot of advice for the brinsea, except that i should fill only half for the 1-18 days but I was searching around to see if thats really best with these little bators or if I should use no water at all. Have you had the best results with or without water? And how did you check on the humidity with these?

I had better success with my second hatch (one of four eggs hatched in the Mini Advance, they were farm eggs from a friend so fertility was questionable, a broody hatched 3 of 6 eggs from the same place at the same time). I kept one reservoir filled. I ended up getting a tiny digital hygrometer.

I will certainly do a few more test hatches before I even think about buying eggs again. I think altitude and the local dryness are issues for me.

 

[Grandma Sherri]

Hello! just started my first ever hatch. The Brinsea Mini Advance instructions say to begin by weighing the eggs, to monitor humidity. There arent any recommendations re: how often I should check the water level or monitor egg weight - anyone have experience with this? TIA

 

[Mahen100]

Hi Sherri. This thread is not very active, and I suggest you join a "hatch along" thread to be with others who are currently hatching. As to monitoring humidity, I think the ambient (room) humidity in your particular location will factor in to how you regulate the humidity. If you are in a dry climate or have wood-burning stoves going, and the inside humidity is low, the instructions may be fine without modification.

If the brinsea mini is in a high humidity location/room, you may want to reduce the surface area of water in one chamber during the early days. Some people fit bottle caps or toothpaste caps into one chamber and fill only the cap, to reduce the amount of humidity in the brinesa. It seems to be a matter of experience. Are you going to use the "cool-down" feature at day seven? I believe it may affect the humidity levels...making it less humid when the fan continues to run during the cool down period when the heater is off.

As far as monitoring egg weight, the charts I have seen rely on "average egg weight" but they are using incubators holding 20 to hundreds of eggs. I personally tried to use an arithmetic average, and plot the ideal weight loss of 13 percent over the incubation period. You can weigh the eggs every few days (when you candle the eggs is an ideal time) and keep a record of each egg's weight, and be somewhat comforted if each egg continues to loose a gram or two at each weighing. I believe there is information in the learning center concerning that, but again, the brinsea has a very small number of eggs to rely on the "average" weight of your eggs, and the figure of 13 percent is an average, not a percent for an individual egg...those may vary around the ideal weight loss and be perfectly fine for that egg.

Just enjoy your first hatch, and good luck. Sometimes I think the people who just "set and forget" do as well, or better, than those like me who fuss and fret and tinker! Best Wishes.

 

[Grandma Sherri]

Thank you for the explanantion! As a new chick Mom and perfectionist, well, you get the picture. I will try the other forum. Thanks, again!

 

[Grandma Sherri]

EEK! Cool down on day 7? i started out that way from day 1....argh...good grief Charlie Brown. Fingers crossed.

 

[Mahen100]

here too. If you read back through the instruction booklet it states to start the cool down on day seven. Don't feel bad, I had to call Brinsea to ask if that was the "readout on top of the Brinsea" number Day 7, or the "seventh day of incubation." That count-down feature is sometimes a pain! They said it meant to start cool-down on the seventh day of incubation. So, if you were worried about "too much" humidity in the incubator...starting the cool-down feature early probably helped you out if there was water in a chamber, I'd say. Live and learn, and have you tried to candle any eggs yet?

edited to add: If you did set the eggs just yesterday, Sherri, I would suggest you get into the brinsea program (by pressing the + and - buttons simultaneously,) and then keep pressing the "ok" button until you get to "cool-down" and pressing the minus button so that it reads "off"....then press the "ok" button repeatedly until it says save...then OK will lead you back into your incubation program where you started without affecting the day or other settings. You can start the cool-down again on day 7. The only harm I can imagine is that it could possibly take a bit longer for the first pip -- then zip to begin...but I doubt even that....I don't think you've done any harm.

 

[Grandma Sherri]

Thanks for the encouraging words! I will wear a fail badge if I mess this up. They have been in three days anad i did turn off the cooldown this morning. I did peek at one large egg last night and it's a TWIN! How did I get so lucky?? Hope to see veins soon.

 

[Mahen100]

Thanks for the encouraging words! I will wear a fail badge if I mess this up. They have been in three days anad i did turn off the cooldown this morning. I did peek at one large egg last night and it's a TWIN! How did I get so lucky?? Hope to see veins soon.

Wow, how could you tell it was a twin? They are very hard to hatch, I have heard, so you are having initiation by fire! Good luck with your hatch! So exciting.