Brinsea mini advance question!

[sagealbright]

Hello,

I am now about to start my 3rd try at hatching with my brinsea mini advance incubator. The past two attempts have not worked and I'm wondering if anyone can figure out what I am doing wrong.

I have 2 roosters and have been checking to make sure all my eggs are fertile. Every time I crack open an egg there is a clear bullseye.

I store the eggs in a cool area for a few days before moving them in to prepare them for the incubator. I also make sure the incubator is at a constant temperature for at least 3 hours before putting the eggs in it.

I keep the temp at 99.5,
t-mode on,
turning every 60 min,
turn angle of 10,
set for 21 days,
temp hi alarm 1.8,
temp low alarm 1.8,
cooling for 60 min.

I do not clean the eggs before I put them in since I was told you're not supposed to. I only pick off pieces of straw and debris. Also, I always place the eggs with the pointed end facing inward towards the water reservoir.

I fill half of the water reservoir once a day.

I have tried candling my eggs with a flashlight and am unable to ever see anything. It looks like they never even began to develop.

The only thing I can figure out is that the eggs are too porous. They are very speckled when I try to candle them. The girls eat layer feed and are offered oyster shells along with healthy treats.


If anyone can think of anything I am doing wrong please let me know! I am ready to give up on trying to incubate eggs all together. I wish one of my girls would just go broody and hatch them herself!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello,

I am now about to start my 3rd try at hatching with my brinsea mini advance incubator. The past two attempts have not worked and I'm wondering if anyone can figure out what I am doing wrong.

I have 2 roosters and have been checking to make sure all my eggs are fertile. Every time I crack open an egg there is a clear bullseye.

I store the eggs in a cool area for a few days before moving them in to prepare them for the incubator. I also make sure the incubator is at a constant temperature for at least 3 hours before putting the eggs in it.

I keep the temp at 99.5,
t-mode on,
turning every 60 min,
turn angle of 10,
set for 21 days,
temp hi alarm 1.8,
temp low alarm 1.8,
cooling for 60 min.

I do not clean the eggs before I put them in since I was told you're not supposed to. I only pick off pieces of straw and debris. Also, I always place the eggs with the pointed end facing inward towards the water reservoir.

I fill half of the water reservoir once a day.

I have tried candling my eggs with a flashlight and am unable to ever see anything. It looks like they never even began to develop.

The only thing I can figure out is that the eggs are too porous. They are very speckled when I try to candle them. The girls eat layer feed and are offered oyster shells along with healthy treats.


If anyone can think of anything I am doing wrong please let me know! I am ready to give up on trying to incubate eggs all together. I wish one of my girls would just go broody and hatch them herself!

Hmmm...sounds like you are doing things right. Are you sure the thermometer(s) you are using are accurate and what are you keeping the humidity at?

 

[sagealbright]

The thermometer is located inside the incubator and comes up on a screen on top. It seems to be accurate since when I first turn the temperature on it starts on the temp our house is at and then climbs to the temp I have set it to (99.5)

As far as humidity, I'm not entirely sure. The instructions say to keep half of the water reservoir filled for the first 18 days and then filled the entire reservoir right before lockdown. I have looked into this since the incubator does not come with a way to measure the humidity. Everything I have read has said that by following the manufacture's instructions they have had successful hatches in this incubator.

 

[dekel18042]

Everything you're doing sounds fine. Just a thought, in the days you're holding your eggs before they go in your incubator, do you turn them?
AmyLynn's idea of checking the thermometer to make sure it is accurate might help too.
At the point you know you're not going to get checks, do you break each egg open and check it. Sometimes that will tell you something: no development, development started and stopped, at what point, etc.

 

[red horse ranch]

How old are your chickens and rooster? After two years old fertility is reduced. I did manage to get a chick last year from a 6 1/2 yr old hen but she was bred by a very young rooster. I give my hens vitamins and extra protein during hatching season.
Eggs are most likely to hatch if less than 5 days old.
I'm not familiar with your brand of incubator so I don't know about the different settings. But my Hovabator was giving me a 99.5 reading although the actual temperature was around 95 degrees when tested with a highly accurate thermometer.
It sounds like you are doing things right. I'm at a loss to know what's wrong unless it is the incubator.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

The thermometer is located inside the incubator and comes up on a screen on top. It seems to be accurate since when I first turn the temperature on it starts on the temp our house is at and then climbs to the temp I have set it to (99.5)

As far as humidity, I'm not entirely sure. The instructions say to keep half of the water reservoir filled for the first 18 days and then filled the entire reservoir right before lockdown. I have looked into this since the incubator does not come with a way to measure the humidity. Everything I have read has said that by following the manufacture's instructions they have had successful hatches in this incubator.

The people having successful hatches may have a different ambient humidity than you and yours may be dryer or more humid which in turn would effect the internal humidity, if I am right. I would get a hygrometer to know the humidity just to see where it averages. You may very well be right and the directions may be sufficient, but it never hurts to double check it and the temp.At least it would rule out those two things. I bought a brand new thermometer for my first hatch lost all but one egg due to the fact my thermometer was 6 degrees off. I never checked it :-(

 

[sagealbright]

Thanks everyone. I'll have to buy a new thermometer to double check. The incubator is so small I'm not sure how to fit anything in there to test the humidity. It's just frustrating since I try to do everything right but then none of the eggs hatch. One egg that I cracked open on day 18 just had a super huge gooey yolk in it. It was disgusting.

red horse ranch; all my chickens were hatched between march-april so they not quite a year old yet.