Result: Cheating the Suggested Capacity on a Brinsea with Turner

[mtc]

Hi All,

I posted a while back wondering about pushing the limits on a Brinsea Mini. I've just had my first hatch. Here's the story.
I aquired 28 eggs from Robo. (Thanks!) and loaded the incubator. I went around a bit between using the 7 slot standard turner and the 12 slot quail turner which is an optional accessory. I ended up using the quail sized turner and just piling in the eggs. I fiddled with the turner controls a bit and set it to turn every 30 minutes and cranked the turning ratio way up. The crowded eggs jiggled each other, and just to be on the safe side, when I opened the incubator to fill the humidity basin, I moved the eggs around a bit as well.

I had a nervous moment when the first egg hatched almost a day ahead of the rest. (A single chick! Oh no!!!) But the next morning there were 13 more chicks keeping it company.

My net result is 21 chicks for 28 eggs, though I haven't pulled the plug on the last few eggs yet. I'll give them the rest of the day in case there are stragglers.

One thing I noticed. Crowded eggs = a crowded hatch. (I removed chicks in batches to give the ones trying to get out room to work.) I think the next time I'll not go higher than 24 eggs. 28 is really pushing capacity.

 

[kahlertm]

I was wondering about doing this. I have wanted to so bad.
Hello, my name is Tonya and I am a hatchaholic.

It is true. I want to get the most out of my equipment and I want to know what works and what doesn't.

Thank you for sharing this.

Tonya

 

[Fat Daddy]

If you load the bator in batches, read staggered hatch, loaded real heavy. I think you should plan on moving them to a hatcher at lock down if possible. A still air is what JJ and others use I believe. This not only helps with the fan shrink wrapping chicks, but also keeps the "mother load" of eggs from seeing the up and down temp and humidity spikes, High or low. I dont use a still air but probably should, I do move them to another bator for lock down. But remember, I'm still new to this and by no means a expert, but it works for me... Bill

 

[mtc]

Quote:
I put all the eggs in at once. I stopped turning two days before (autosetting). A larger capacity incubator might have kept the necessity for moving the chicks down, but that's hard to say. It definately would have probably kept the humidity from climbing as high as it seemed to do. It looked pretty steamy at a couple of points.

I pulled the plug on the hatch. At least two of the eggs pipped, but didn't have the gumption to break all the way through. I didn't candle, so I don't know how many of the other eggs were blanks or early deaths.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I sorry, I miss read your O.P.. Dont know where I got the idea you were loading eggs at different times. I do that in the brinsea... I see you got 21 chicks from 28, shipped eggs, thats a good hatch no matter how you did it... Bill

 

[JJMR794]

Bill's Correct I Use A Still Air Hatcher For Lockdown And Hatch. Allows Me To Load An Excessive Amount Of Eggs In The Brinseas And Does Help Prevent The "shrink Wrapping" That Occurs In Forced Air Incubators. I Use This Set Up With Any And All Eggs Set No Matter The Speces It Simplifies It As I Set Staggered Hatches Continually, This Way I Get Max Incubator Space Use And Still Have Good Hatches All Without Tinkering With Individual Controls, Heck I Havent Had To Adjust Any Incubator Here In Well Over A Year, They're All Dialed In And Firmly Set On Autopilot

Incubators Cook And Hatchers Hatch... Works Like A Charm For Me. Each Is Set To Optimum For Its Purpose And Left Alone (i Really Hate Chasing Temp And Humidity... It Just Makes Me Mean

)

The Steamy Periods During Pip And Hatch Are Normal... In Fact If You're A Hoverer Who Continually Watches A Setting With Hopes Of Seeing Something It Can Be Used For A Sign Of Impending Hatch... Once Jr Pips The Outside Of His Womb The Moisture From The Amniotic Fluid He's Been Doing Laps In For Tha Past 2 1/2 Weeks Starts To Evaporate And Bumps Your Humidity Up Temporarily

As Far As Moving Chicks Frequently... Thats Really A Necessity No Matter How Much Room They Have, Or At Least It Should Be. Gamebird Babies Do Much Better If Moved To Brooder As Soon As Dry In The Long Run. Many Of Us Routinely Move Them As Soon As They Are Fluffy.

 

[Robo]

Congrats on the hatch, sounds like they did great.

 

[mtc]

Quote:
They're gorgeous! A real nice mix of goldens, cinnamon and dark ones.

 

[mtc]

Quote:
That sounds like a great set up. I'm trying to keep my numbers manageable, at least at first! But it's likely if I decide to make a habit out of regular hatches, that I'd move to a similar system.

 

[Rozzie]

Last hatch I did in my Brinsea mini, I loaded 20 eggs. I knew I was going to have some that were infertile. (Some were shipped--great eggs & some were from my birds while my roo was not doing his duty much). I ended up with about fourteen babies from the batch, which I was well pleased with. I did candle before hatch day and removed the eggs that weren't developed to increase hatch space. I also removed babies frequently when they started hatching. Otherwise, they'd have been terribly crowded in there.