Brinsea not a good hatcher...

[joe17]

I love my Brinsea Eco! It always has steady temperatures and nearly anything fertile will grow in it. I just always have problems during hatch time. For one, just filling the two troughs isn't going to raise the humidity high enough or at least for me. The fan seems to be so strong that is dries up the embryos really quick. I know the chicks dry much faster in the brinsea than hova bator. Does anyone else have these problems? I always get a bunch of eggs to develop and most die during lockdown. I will know use the hova bator as the permanent hatcher.

 

[Mahonri]

My first three hatches in my Brinsea went well. But by the time Easter Hatch 2011 came along, I couldn't get it to keep temp.

I cleaned the fan area, but it didn't make any difference.

Talk about buyers remorse because I paid A LOT for it. I could have bought more Hovabators or a Dickey.

I'm done with Brinseas.... way too pricey for three very hatches.. and they don't hold a lot of eggs either.

 

[Countrypunk92]

I am not.much help as I am hatching for the first time. But People often have an incubator to incubate eggs till day 18 then move it to a hatcher. Either it be a box with a lamo and water bowl, or a Hova bator or an actual hatcher. So I agree by using the hova bator to hatch out eggs.

 

[seminolewind]

That's a shame. I had one, but I never noticed it's problems because I was hatching (lockdown) in the Hovabator, too. I now have an r-com. It has a nice big viewing window, The auto humidity works great. It's very temp steady. The only thing I don't like is that when it turns the eggs, by the end of the day, the eggs have moved to one end with their pointy end more up. So I set them up again with the blunt side up. But I like it.

 

[SkyWarrior]

I have a hovabator and have had not a lot of luck with them. I just bought a brinsea advance because, quite frankly, I've heard good things about them. Right now this is my first incubation and I have 7 eggs doing well.

So, I'm staying with this at this moment.

YMMV.

 

[saddina]

are you closing the vent on the top far enough? for a fast shot of humidity I steam a cup of water (112 on high in the microwave, same as making tea), and pour the hot water into the brinesea. the steam will instant hike the humidity for you.

 

[NonnasBabies]

I haven't had any problems with mine. I've had really good hatch rates. I run an aquarium tube through the vent hole and use a cajun injector syringe to add water. I always add hot water to keep the humidity up.

 

[yinepu]

I love my brinseas (have 2 of them).. never had a problem and I remove chicks a lot during a hatch.. right now I am at the end of a quail hatch (40 chicks out so far.. only a couple eggs left to go) ..have been pulling the chicks as soon as I have three hatched out (so I've opened it AT LEAST 12 times so far..) .. I am also removing the empty shells.. and I even had it open for a bit between groups to candle the leftover eggs (didn't candle at lockdown). my humidity has gone right back up into the 60's to 70's within seconds of closing the lid.. no sticky chicks.. no shrink wrapped chicks.. no humidity issues at all

 

[Tropical Chickies]

What a bummer! The Brinsea has such a great name. I wanted to get one, but the price was a bit steep for me. I ended up buying a Hovabator. I have only used it for one hatch so far (another eggs are set in it right now) and had a great outcome. Out of 13 eggs, 10 hatched. I figured the last three were probably my fault since I kept opening the lid to remove the chicks. We'll see how the next goes.

 

[Gypsy07]

What Yinepu said has been my experience exactly. But I have the Advance EX model with the humidity pump and I think maybe s/he does too? In any case, Brinsea sells humidity pads for just that problem. Or you could probably make your own if you didn't want to spend more money. If the two troughs full of water doesn't raise your humidity high enough, just raise your surface area by having a piece of cloth pad spread out over the bator floor (underneath the hatching tray) and dipped into one of the troughs so it wicks up the moisture. If that's what you need to do, you'd probably also need some sort of piping system to refill your troughs, cause that will dry them out FAST.

I definitely wouldn't close the vent on the top any to raise the humidity - by lockdown it should be fully open for maximum oxygen transfer.