Higher end incubators....need help!

[hillyhavenfarm]

Hi, Ok, looking for some fast help here. I'll be brief on what I'm looking for and my situation.

Situation...new to hatching. I bought a Brinsea Eco 20 in November 2013. Hatched some shipped Barnevelder eggs, 8 of 11 hatched. Not to bad. Let incubator sit until Feb 2014 and ordered Swedish Flower eggs (even experienced people say these are very hard to hatch). I hatched 3 eggs out of 24+ eggs. Got discouraged, ordered chicks lol. Chicks are now mature and I want to start hatching again, as well as shipped eggs (english orps and swedish eggs from friends).

Out of 15 eggs, I've got 3 chicks again. I had some hedemoras I tried this time too. The chicks took until day 23-24 to hatch. I tried carefully opening 3 of the hedemora eggs (I had one Hedemora and 2 Swedish hatch on their own on day 23), all three were live chicks but had lots of blood and even when stopped (I followed the advice on a thread here), they died within seconds. So may be something genetic with those. Why so much blood on day 24?

So, my eggs are taking a long time to hatch. I have the thermometer in the Eco and also had one with a hygometer from incubator warehouse. Lots of fluctuation on the digital one, the Eco bulb one stayed pretty consistent. I started a new batch of English Orp eggs on Saturday morning and picked up a thermometer/hygometer at Walmart to put inside the bator too. 3 different temps. The Eco is at 100, the walmart one is at 99 and the Incubator Warehouse one is at 100.8 (I really think this one is off).

We live in Wisconsin, have a large old farmhouse and heat with a pellet stove, oil backup for extreme cold. I have the incubator in the office, which is about the coolest, most consistent temp room. However, as a pellet stove just runs on low/med/high, our house fluctuates in temps. I think this is really throwing off my incubator. I turned the stove down last night to low as it was kinda warm, so this morning, the incubator is 1.5* cooler than it was last night.

Is it worth it for me to buy an Oct 20 Advance? Or a IncuView? Do those regulate themselves and keep the temp even? It'd pay for itself in 2 hatches if I even had a couple more chicks hatch. I'm so new to this but do not see what I have working with our house.

 

[DevilsDenHen]

I have the advance and its wonderful. I heat with a wood stove so house temps fluctuate a lot. And this incubator is awesome. I also use the humidity pump with it and it does everything. Just set it and watch it go.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi, Ok, looking for some fast help here. I'll be brief on what I'm looking for and my situation.

Situation...new to hatching. I bought a Brinsea Eco 20 in November 2013. Hatched some shipped Barnevelder eggs, 8 of 11 hatched. Not to bad. Let incubator sit until Feb 2014 and ordered Swedish Flower eggs (even experienced people say these are very hard to hatch). I hatched 3 eggs out of 24+ eggs. Got discouraged, ordered chicks lol. Chicks are now mature and I want to start hatching again, as well as shipped eggs (english orps and swedish eggs from friends).

Out of 15 eggs, I've got 3 chicks again. I had some hedemoras I tried this time too. The chicks took until day 23-24 to hatch. I tried carefully opening 3 of the hedemora eggs (I had one Hedemora and 2 Swedish hatch on their own on day 23), all three were live chicks but had lots of blood and even when stopped (I followed the advice on a thread here), they died within seconds. So may be something genetic with those. Why so much blood on day 24?

So, my eggs are taking a long time to hatch. I have the thermometer in the Eco and also had one with a hygometer from incubator warehouse. Lots of fluctuation on the digital one, the Eco bulb one stayed pretty consistent. I started a new batch of English Orp eggs on Saturday morning and picked up a thermometer/hygometer at Walmart to put inside the bator too. 3 different temps. The Eco is at 100, the walmart one is at 99 and the Incubator Warehouse one is at 100.8 (I really think this one is off).

We live in Wisconsin, have a large old farmhouse and heat with a pellet stove, oil backup for extreme cold. I have the incubator in the office, which is about the coolest, most consistent temp room. However, as a pellet stove just runs on low/med/high, our house fluctuates in temps. I think this is really throwing off my incubator. I turned the stove down last night to low as it was kinda warm, so this morning, the incubator is 1.5* cooler than it was last night.

Is it worth it for me to buy an Oct 20 Advance? Or a IncuView? Do those regulate themselves and keep the temp even? It'd pay for itself in 2 hatches if I even had a couple more chicks hatch. I'm so new to this but do not see what I have working with our house.

This would be a good question to shoot @Yorkshire coop as she much experience with the Brinseas.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi
Glad you could join the flock! Your temp readings are not that off for all your thermometers. I have the advance model and hatch at 37.5 celsius which would equate to 99.5 farenheight. I would recalibrate your Eco thermometer although I don't think it wrong with others being so close in readings. How to recalibrate should be in the instruction booklet. Taking readings from other areas of the incubator may give you differing results because of how they designed to read temps from the installed thermometer. You don't mention humidity? What do have for day1-18? I have found 45% good for adequate moisture and weight loss in the Brinsea. At least 65% at lockdown is required. Humidity is a major factor in hatch rates and needs to be an average over the entire incubation period. Short term variations shouldnt be a problem as long as you have the average.

The advance with humidity pump is fab and I would reccomend it 100%! Total digital read out on temp and humidity and with the pump its a breeze, just set what you require for humidity and when it drops 1% below the pump kicks in to start putting water onto the evaporation pad in the incubator. The temp holds steady very well only differing by point 1 of a degree. Total set and forget incubator and I trust it 100%. It has produce me some great results even with shipped eggs. ETA Here is a great article on incubation problems
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-failure-to-hatch-diagnosing-incubation-problems
Good luck in your choice and be sure to ask any more questions you have

 

[hillyhavenfarm]

How does one recalibrate a bulb thermometer?

I did a dry hatch which is recommended for Swedish. Ran about 15-20% and 50% at hatch.

I tried not to ramble too much earlier, but what I'm wondering is if the brinsea advanced or incutherms self regulate their temps. I think a major problem is the non constant temps in our house and then adjusting the incubator to account for that and then a day or two later having to adjust it again. It is appearing it could be a 2* swing sometimes.

 

[DevilsDenHen]

Yes the advance adjusts the temp for you. You just program where you want it and it does the rest for you