Learning the Hard Way 😢: A warning about Brinsea when adjusting settings during incubation

[Offshoreorca]

Hi All,

Sad day over here. I have a hatch going on Day 17 in a Brinsea Advance Mini II. All was progressing well and I candled them last night. I turned the turner off and cooling off and forgot to click all the way though the menu. It was under a counter so I couldn‘t see the display without turning on a flashlight and leaning in, so that went unnoticed.

Fast forward to this evening when I went to up the humidity. I decided to give it one more candle and too my horror all the eggs were cold The menu was still on the cooling options page so I quickly finished the menu and it began to heat up again. Now it says there was a power outage, which I know isn’t the case. Why would Brinsea have made the incubator stop during the menu selection process if the settings are chosen already? Has anyone had chicks hatch after a 24hr power outage?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Has anyone had chicks hatch after a 24hr power outage?

Hi there. sorry for your mishap!

Yes, plenty of people have things happen and life still finds a way!

Day 17 is pretty late.. much of the formation will have taken place already and they will be producing *some* heat of their own. Sometimes power outages can cause deformities or hatch failure.. but other times.. they still hatch perfectly.. so don't give up yet!

Expect them to possibly hatch a bit later than you first expected. How cool in your house?

Get that back to temp.. if you want candle to look for movement. Otherwise.. move forward and hope for the best! Always come back to double check a half hour after adjustments.. or select another location, or get and use the flashlight.. lesson learned!

Thank you for the public service announcement. Be encouraged!

Happy hatching!

 

[Offshoreorca]

Hi there. sorry for your mishap!

Yes, plenty of people have things happen and life still finds a way!

Day 17 is pretty late.. much of the formation will have taken place already and they will be producing *some* heat of their own. Sometimes power outages can cause deformities or hatch failure.. but other times.. they still hatch perfectly.. so don't give up yet!

Expect them to possibly hatch a bit later than you first expected. How cool in your house?

Get that back to temp.. if you want candle to look for movement. Otherwise.. move forward and hope for the best! Always come back to double check a half hour after adjustments.. or select another location, or get and use the flashlight.. lesson learned!

Thank you for the public service announcement. Be encouraged!

Happy hatching!

Yes, I’ve never had an issue with hatching before so this is a shock - I also was unaware that simply being in the Brinsea menu would turn the heating element off. Seems like an odd function. Cooling was set to 60 minutes. I wanted to post this so others knew what can potentially happen as I couldn’t find a thread on it.

I did see veins still in one of the eggs, so many some will pull through. Thank you for your encouragement - I’m very sad that my negligence has potentially killed my hatch. Not something I imagined ever happening. My house is at 21.5 degrees Celsius (70.7 Fahrenheit).

 

[janiedoe]

Crossing my fingers & saying a little prayer for your hatch. Good luck! (Please post an update.)

 

[Offshoreorca]

Crossing my fingers & saying a little prayer for your hatch. Good luck! (Please post an update.)

I candled this morning and there is good movement and veining in two of the eggs. Another two I am unsure about as they are hard to see into and I'm pretty sure I've lost two as I can't see any air cell growth and they're pretty dark.

Better than I had hoped for, but not out of the woods yet.

 

[Araucana Nest]

I hope they are okay. The later in the stage of development the mishap occurs, the better the chances for survival.

 

[Offshoreorca]

I hope they are okay. The later in the stage of development the mishap occurs, the better the chances for survival.

I have two that are showing good veining this morning and some movement. A third showed movement, but seemed to be weak on the veining so hopefully I just can't see the veins. One I'm not sure about and I think the other two have passed as the air cells haven't progressed at all and it looks quite dark and still in the eggs.

Hoping for a couple chicks - that would definitely be more than I expect given that the heat was off for 24hrs.

 

[MissMonty]

Glad to hear things are looking up! Keep us posted

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I have two that are showing good veining this morning and some movement. A third showed movement, but seemed to be weak on the veining so hopefully I just can't see the veins. One I'm not sure about and I think the other two have passed as the air cells haven't progressed at all and it looks quite dark and still in the eggs.

Hoping for a couple chicks - that would definitely be more than I expect given that the heat was off for 24hrs.

That's great news. As long as they're still alive you should be on track for a slightly delayed hatch. Not completely out of the woods but I'm cautiously optimistic for you and the chicks.

 

[Offshoreorca]

That's great news. As long as they're still alive you should be on track for a slightly delayed hatch. Not completely out of the woods but I'm cautiously optimistic for you and the chicks.

I'm very thankful there is some hope. And thanks for your support during this - it's challenging feeling responsible for a potentially failed hatch.

According to Brinsea, this shouldn't happen from just being in the menu, but that was the only difference from anything I have done before. I work from home so I know that there wasn't a power outage and that the unit sounded like it was working well all day. And I have it on a super short cooling cycle, so it never quite bottoms out at room temperature, particularly for the eggs (they are always warm to the touch near the end of a 60 minute cooling cycle as they retain heat so well).