February Hatch-A-Long

[BrinseaUS]

Sad day over here. I by accident didn’t completely press through the menu on my Brinsea when I turned the turner and cooling function off last night in preparation for lockdown and it stopped heating Eggs were cold tonight when I went to candle them. No warnings went off and the fan didn’t stop, so I had no clue this was happening during the day. I turned the incubator back on in the hopes that maybe a few will pull through (room temp is 21.5 Celsius). It now says there was a power outage? Which I know isn’t the case. I had it in a nook where I couldn’t read the menu without leaning in and using the flashlight on my phone as I wanted to keep the, dark, so I guess I won’t ever be doing that again I’ve started a thread so others know to not make the same mistake as I did.

I will keep you all posted.

I'm so sorry to hear that! Unfortunately if you don't go through the whole menu and press 'OK' when it says 'Save' it won't save the settings, which is how the cooling got left on. If the cooling was still on then no alarms would go off because the incubator was functioning as it was set to.

If you quickly unplugged the incubator and then plugged it back in that can sometimes trigger it to show that there was a power outage.

 

[Offshoreorca]

I'm so sorry to hear that! Unfortunately if you don't go through the whole menu and press 'OK' when it says 'Save' it won't save the settings, which is how the cooling got left on. If the cooling was still on then no alarms would go off because the incubator was functioning as it was set to.

If you quickly unplugged the incubator and then plugged it back in that can sometimes trigger it to show that there was a power outage.

Hi! The cooling was only set for a 60 minute cycle, so I don't know why it would just keep cooling. There was no notes or warning about that being a concern in the manual - wish I would have known better, but I won't make that mistake again. But I guess being on that screen automatically causes cooling? Perhaps that would be a good warning in the future as I didn't find any information online or on these threads about that

The incubator was never unplugged, so I don't know where the power outage indication came from.

 

[orrpeople]

Nice! Have you heard about the testing for the homozygous blue shell genes? I think it's relatively new. Or at least I just read about it this week. It's was news to me.
https://www.silveruddsblue.org/testing-for-blue-egg-gene

Cool, thanks!

I've had mine for about 5 years and they've been very consistent green layers through all their generations. They are my absolute favorite breed!

 

[orrpeople]

Love Silverudd Blue! Do you have egg photos?

The SB 2 are my more prolific pen at this point, but I've gotten a few from my SB 1 pen (older hens that are currently mad at me - they're big-time free rangers and now they're in a pen with a rooster they didn't hang out with.)

The other eggs are project pens. Dark eggs are a Biele/Marans dual purpose 1st gen. Light eggs are a SFH/55 working towards a pretty bird with an easy-going temperament that still lays lots of large eggs. I'm going to breed some SS into them at some point, then come back to the leghorn. It's all very ?????

 

[BrinseaUS]

Hi! The cooling was only set for a 60 minute cycle, so I don't know why it would just keep cooling. There was no notes or warning about that being a concern in the manual - wish I would have known better, but I won't make that mistake again. But I guess being on that screen automatically causes cooling? Perhaps that would be a good warning in the future as I didn't find any information online or on these threads about that

The incubator was never unplugged, so I don't know where the power outage indication came from.

Something else may have gone wrong then. Is the incubator heating up now or does it not heat at all? That would indicate that the heating fuse has blown. Being in the menu on the cooling screen does not cause cooling.

You said in the last comment that you turned the incubator back on, I assumed you meant you had unplugged it. What did you mean?

 

[Offshoreorca]

Something else may have gone wrong then. Is the incubator heating up now or does it not heat at all? That would indicate that the heating fuse has blown. Being in the menu on the cooling screen does not cause cooling.

You said in the last comment that you turned the incubator back on, I assumed you meant you had unplugged it. What did you mean?

I was just on the cooling screen in the menu and that somehow turned the heating element off, which I found extremely odd. Given the lack of warnings in the manual, I didn't think this would happen. The incubator was plugged in and the fan was running the whole time so there was no warning signs, no alarms, etc. I know the heating element is still working as the temperature is back up now and holding steady? I'm very confused as to what caused this cooling as I've never experienced anything like it with the incubator before - it has always been reliable and I only bought it last year. It plastic casing does have a crack growing from where the turner is (something is too tight or chaffing when it turns, as the incubator has always been stored and handled carefully), but that hasn't effected temperatures and shouldn't as long as it's only a hairline crack.

When I said "turned it on", I just meant that I went through the menu again and made sure that everything was set right.

 

[BrinseaUS]

I was just on the cooling screen in the menu and that somehow turned the heating element off, which I found extremely odd. Given the lack of warnings in the manual, I didn't think this would happen. The incubator was plugged in and the fan was running the whole time so there was no warning signs, no alarms, etc. I know the heating element is still working as the temperature is back up now and holding steady? I'm very confused as to what caused this cooling as I've never experienced anything like it with the incubator before - it has always been reliable and I only bought it last year. It plastic casing does have a crack growing from where the turner is (something is too tight or chaffing when it turns, as the incubator has always been stored and handled carefully), but that hasn't effected temperatures and shouldn't as long as it's only a hairline crack.

When I said "turned it on", I just meant that I went through the menu again and made sure that everything was set right.

Being in the menu would not turn the heating element off. How long did the incubator cool for? Is it possible it was just going through a cooling cycle?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

The SB 2 are my more prolific pen at this point, but I've gotten a few from my SB 1 pen (older hens that are currently mad at me - they're big-time free rangers and now they're in a pen with a rooster they didn't hang out with.)

View attachment 2527043
The other eggs are project pens. Dark eggs are a Biele/Marans dual purpose 1st gen. Light eggs are a SFH/55 working towards a pretty bird with an easy-going temperament that still lays lots of large eggs. I'm going to breed some SS into them at some point, then come back to the leghorn. It's all very ?????

Gorgeous eggs!
Are you hoping to keep your SFH/55 sexable at hatch? Bringing in the SS for pattern? I understand the 55 Flowery Hens are prolific egg layers already. Leghorn added to up the production? You have some great projects in the works! Father Martin would approve, I am sure!

 

[Offshoreorca]

Being in the menu would not turn the heating element off. How long did the incubator cool for? Is it possible it was just going through a cooling cycle?

It was definitely off for a few hours at minimum as I have used cooling every hatched and have checked eggs towards the end of the cooling cycle frequently. The eggs have never ever been so cold to the touch and without movement during the end of a cycle, as I only have cooling on for a very short time (60 minutes from Day 7-17 and in the menu it was turned off at this point, so it shouldn't have continued). I am also seeing evidence of embryo die-off in at least two eggs this morning, which I have never had a problem during late incubation with in prior incubations. Other hatches of these eggs have given me a 100% hatch rate, so it's likely not the eggs themselves - as that always can be a factor. The cooling was also set to go on at an entirely different time of the day (early morning) during the earlier part of incubation.

The last time I adjusted the incubator was at 8pm on Wednesday, so I am assuming that is when the heating element got turned off. I would like to be wrong, but when you've used something quite a bit you normally have a good feeling for when something is wrong. I was specifically in the cooling part of the menu, but my guess was that this shouldn't have caused it as I figured Brinsea would have put warnings in the manual if this was the case? Is it possible that there is a glitch in the internal computer that caused the heating element not to come on after the morning's cooling? That would be the other possibility.

I just would like to figure out what went wrong as I want to avoid it in future incubations. Brinsea has always been reliable for me and most hatches I have done have 100% rate (barring shipped eggs and such).

 

[Nmarine1057]

I have never used the cooling function on my brinsea before, and I've never had a problem hatching. I remember when I used a little giant incubator, and the temperature was all over the place, I was obsessed with keeping the temperature perfect. Now I hear people are intentionally cooling! Goes against everything I've learned why would one do this anyway?