Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator

[JenS9]

I just got mine this morning. Going to let them sit overnight since they were shipped, and set them tomorrow. Going to candle tonight to see if I can see anything, and make notes.

 

[choptank330]

That's exciting!! Good luck !!

 

[ShayBaby]

I have the Eco, but I thought this might be interesting to some, regarding max amount of eggs it's capable of holding (without a turner, obviously).
My first attempt at hatching was little Serama eggs. I squeezed 14 of them puppies in the Mini, and two of them were in carton cups for detached air cells. If they weren't in cups, I probably could have squeezed in a couple more. Sadly, I had 0 hatch.

Then I tried my hand at LF EE/OE eggs. I had 24 eggs, but could only pack 9 in there at most. (Had to throw together a homemade styrobator for the rest.) I don't have a picture of the 9, but they were packed. They were pretty big eggs, though. In the end, I ended up with 4. More about that below.

This time, I'm trying Coturnix quail eggs. I managed to fit 32 eggs in there, with room for at least one more.

Keep in mind, though, this is without a turner, so you have to turn manually and when they're packed like sardines, it sometimes gets pretty difficult. Also I would NOT recommend hatching out of the Mini when they're this cramped. Have a separate hatcher preferably if you end up with a lot of eggs still at lockdown. With the 9 LF EE eggs, only 4 made it to lockdown and hatched, and I can now say I would not try hatching out more than 4 or 5 LF in it for space reasons. It would be unbearably cramped in there for them with more than that I think (not to mention, LF chicks can't stand up fully with the low "ceiling", so get them out fairly quickly):

Come spring, I'll be testing various duck and geese eggs in it.

 

[ShayBaby]

And thank you, suebee, for the medicine bottle lid post a couple weeks ago! As you can see in my quail egg pics up there, I somehow lost the cover when I was sanitizing after hatch last time. I saw the replacement price (pfft!) and thought I'd just throw rocks in come hatch time. Now I'll go through the med cabinet!

Not that I would need a cover during incubation, but the humidity stays at 40% in the Mini with no water whatsoever in the pots. So glad I got that hygrometer, or I would have followed the "one pot for incubation, two pots for lockdown" rule and drowned them. During lockdown, I only have to fill one pot with just a few drops for it to shoot up over 70%. When both pots are filled, it pushes 100% in there.

 

[JenS9]

Wow that's packed! I got 7 silkie eggs in mine. And OMG is it hard to fit a hygrometer in there!

 

[ShayBaby]

Wow that's packed! I got 7 silkie eggs in mine. And OMG is it hard to fit a hygrometer in there!

That it is! I don't know if you can see in my chick pics, I think you can see the little round thermometer - the matching hygrometer is on the other side. They're little analog ones from the pet store for reptile habitats, with adhesive backs. I stuck one to each side of the protruding fan-water pot cover-thing (lol). Works great.

 

[JenS9]

Oooh, I see it. Mine is digital, but it has a sticky back, so I bet it would fit on there... hmm....

 

[tcmstalcup]

I have a mini advance. I am in west Texas which is semi arid. I fill one side of water well until lockdown. At lockdown I fill both. I cleaned it today. Popped the interior plastic cover and blew with canned air. I put the bottom in the dishwasher.

 

[suebee]

I have a mini advance. I am in west Texas which is semi arid. I fill one side of water well until lockdown. At lockdown I fill both. I cleaned it today. Popped the interior plastic cover and blew with canned air. I put the bottom in the dishwasher.

According to the manual, you should never put the egg disc, incubator base or lid in the dishwasher! Oops.

 

[choptank330]

I just hand washed the bottom and spray aired the top