My new Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco - HATCH! pg. 6 (pic heavy)

[raindrop]

Well, my first incubator ever arrived today. This thread will document my first hatch.

I ordered the Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco for $99, no auto-turning cradle.

This is the bottom, water goes in the grooves. I filled both up to within 3/4" of the top, per instructions.

This is the rack without the dividers.

This is the incubator with the lid on. The vent control is the little lever in the middle. I set it half open, also following instructions in manual. I played around with rotating the whole incubator as I will do to turn the eggs, no water spilled anywhere. You can see the glass thermometer on the lower left.

I plugged it in and found the temperature control (tiny red dial), but did not touch it.

I let it run for about 3 hours. The temperature rose to 99.6ish (it does not have a digital thermometer) within about 45 minutes and did not move. I have no way to measure humidity, but will get something tomorrow. I was too excited to wait.

Added 18 of my Dutch Hookbill duck eggs.

Quack quack! Here goes nothing!

 

[gabrielle1976]

LOL how long did you let it run?

Oh and I am so jelous I want one of those so bad , by the time I have the money though I am shure they wont be no 99 dollers lol.

Good luck with youre ducky's

 

[pascopol]

I got mine a week ago, run it for 3 days empty. Temp quickly ran to 95.5 and stayed there without any fluctuations.



I filled one groove with water, humidity was very low, so I filled the second, and humidity read 40%. Thats perfect for first 18 days, but for hatching probably a sponge or some other material increasing
humidity will be probably needed.

Humidity may be higher under real condition when bator is filled with eggs cause of eggs losing fluid (evaporation).

Then I played with temp adjustment finding that it reacts very quickly
(within a minute or so) to adjustments.

It is very impressive that once temp reaches a point it stays there and never bounces around like all cheap and expensive styros do.

There is an opinion going on this forum that you can not stabilize an empty bator (styrofoam junk).

Brinsea proves it wrong and confirms my opinion that a quality bator will run stable empty or not.

I checked the temp with 2 analog and one digital thermometer

Checked humidity with analog and digital hygrometer.

I am going to hatch some of mine and some shipped eggs soon,

will report and comment my first Brinsea ECO hatch.


I will either sell my LG or take a guts out of it and make a hatcher
using plastic or wooden box.

 

[HappyHatch'en]

Congratulations and good luck....
HappyHatch'en

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Nice pictures !! Thank You for posting those, I just bought a used 40 so I am happy to see pics of a Brinsea up and running.

I still like my Hova 1583 and my old Lyons just needed to feed the addiction of hatching more!!

 

[ChanceRider]

raindrop, thanks so much for posting such detailed pics of the 'bator. Mine is due to be delivered this Friday and I've been terribly impatient!

Good luck with your hatch, I hope you keep us all updated.
~Eve

 

[ChandlersChickens]

I can't wait to see how this turns out. I'm thinking about buying one too...I'm glad I can watch first.

 

[cackle]

I bought a humidity gauge for mine from WalMart for around 8 dollars. Is was back in hardware. Found when I got it home the humidity was 55%! TOOK A LITTLE ADJUSTING BUT IT IS NOW IN THE 40 RANGE.

Sorry about the caps. Too tired to correct.

 

[magikchick]

I was wondering about these too. I bought my hova-bator about a month ago and really love it, but you never know.

 

[ChanceRider]

Quote:
LOL, I bought the Brinsea ECO 20 and am expecting it to be delivered Friday. Before that purchase I was leaning very heavily toward the HovaBator 1588, with auto turner. Yesterday a friend called to say that for $150 I can buy one of his GQF cabinet style 'bators.... dang, I want them ALL! All this and I have yet to incubate my first egg