THE Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco Thread; Hatches, etc. (PICS)

[Fred's Hens]

Thousands and thousands of people hatch successfully in the upright position. Millions of hatchery chicks? Ditto.

The Brinsea is a crowded hatcher. This is why lots of folks incubate in the Brinsea for 18 days, then take them to an inexpensive, but roomy foam hatcher. Lots of room in those 48 egg foam incubators. The idea is that the Brinsea does the delicate, temperature sensitive work well, then the hatching can be done in a roomy foam unit.

I personally see no advantage to jamming the Brinsea full to the gills if you going to leave them in there to hatch. I like to put no more than 20 eggs, large fowl. As always, YMMV.

 

[bethbug74]

Ok, I think I will just go ahead and cut down the number of eggs i set in there, and put the extras in my Mini Advance just to make sure that everyone has enough room. I just don't trust cheap foam incubators to do much of anything, so It will be while before I am able to afford a dedicated "hatcher" that I feel is reliable enough to trust my showgirls' eggs in...

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Thousands and thousands of people hatch successfully in the upright position. Millions of hatchery chicks? Ditto.

The Brinsea is a crowded hatcher. This is why lots of folks incubate in the Brinsea for 18 days, then take them to an inexpensive, but roomy foam hatcher. Lots of room in those 48 egg foam incubators. The idea is that the Brinsea does the delicate, temperature sensitive work well, then the hatching can be done in a roomy foam unit.

I personally see no advantage to jamming the Brinsea full to the gills if you going to leave them in there to hatch. I like to put no more than 20 eggs, large fowl. As always, YMMV.

I had 19 chicks hatch in my Brinsea and after about 12 hatching they were so crowded that I had to open (and shurnk wrap one) to save everyone from being crushed and smothered.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I'm doing my first hatch in my new incubator - an R-Com 20 Max. For me, the Brinsea just didn't provide the quality I was looking for in an incubator. I didn't like that I had to open it to add water - that it didn't hold much water - the lid was crowded with the workings of the unit and you couldn't really see the chicks well when pipping/zipping/hatching - the top was flimsy - over crowding when chicks hatched.

I hope you have a good hatch! Good luck and post pics

Mine are due Friday/Saturday. I put my eggs in about 8pm - 21 days later is Friday... will they hatch after 8pm? Does the time we put eggs in have any impact on hatching time?

 

[Peter1975]

Hi folks....
just a quick question. Someone has asked me to look over thier eco 30 bator as thier not having much luck hatching anything. Using my own thermometer/hygrometre probes i've established it was running too hot, thats now sorted. My question is relating to humidity. If one tray is filled it only reaches around %17, and with both filled around %35. Am I right in thinking it's better to fill both from the start and boost it to a suitable humidity at lockdown with paper towles or felt (as mentioned earlier)?.
Kind regards
Pete

 

[Peter1975]

*eco 20

 

[cracrzy4chicks]

Hi folks....
just a quick question. Someone has asked me to look over thier eco 30 bator as thier not having much luck hatching anything. Using my own thermometer/hygrometre probes i've established it was running too hot, thats now sorted. My question is relating to humidity. If one tray is filled it only reaches around %17, and with both filled around %35. Am I right in thinking it's better to fill both from the start and boost it to a suitable humidity at lockdown with paper towles or felt (as mentioned earlier)?.
Kind regards
Pete

Hi Pete, I'm new at this whole chicken thing ! Last March I decided to try to hatch. I borrowed a Brinsea eco-20......................... it had no directions so I went on line & printed them. They state to run humidity at about 50-55% 'til day 18 then boost to 65-70%. I bought sponge cloths, they are really thin soft sponges and are about 6"x8" sq. I cut them so 1 would lay in the trough and up onto the floor of the bator, I kept both troughs full. At lockdown I added another cloth to the other trough, wet them down & filled the troughs to the max.
All my hatches so far have yeilded a 90-95% sucess

 

[immyjay54]

Hi folks....
just a quick question. Someone has asked me to look over thier eco 30 bator as thier not having much luck hatching anything. Using my own thermometer/hygrometre probes i've established it was running too hot, thats now sorted. My question is relating to humidity. If one tray is filled it only reaches around %17, and with both filled around %35. Am I right in thinking it's better to fill both from the start and boost it to a suitable humidity at lockdown with paper towles or felt (as mentioned earlier)?.
Kind regards
Pete

I'm sure no expert nor know it all but I had super good luck with my Brinsea last year and will be using it again a little later this year. Go back to page 36 and I have pictures etc on there that maybe will help you out.
Jim
Also go to page 33 that will show how I did them for the hatching. lol sorry, I knew I had those pictures on there but couldn't find them.

 

[Pele]

I just had to post my own experiences, this is a great thread!

So last year, I was hatching in a Hovabator 1060N. Or I should rather say that I was killing half-formed chicks in this unit. It was the most temperamental, horrible, wretched thing ever. It would buck temperatures around like a bronco, especially when I turned the auto-turner on or off (which rendered it useless). I lost over 200 dollars worth of eggs over the course of 4 hatches, every time making new adjustments, trying new things to appease the stupid thing. One attempt was to wrap it in towels to help steady the temps. Yeah... that apparently plugged air holes at the bottom of the unit, and smothered the hatch. One attempt was to add heat sink items to it, but that crowded the incubator so badly that I could barely fit 5 eggs in. Another time I accidentally added a fraction too much water, which flooded the entire water pan. Since the wire the eggs are on is only a fraction of an inch above the pan, tada swamped eggs. I scrabled to empty the unit, but of course, it decided to be a temperature primadonna because I had dared to touch it, and the hatch died.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when it ruined yet another hatch with a temp spike at lockdown, which resulted in the entire hatch dying save one baby hatching malformed. It was injured so badly that we had to put it down. It was heartbreaking, since it had tried so hard to live.

Enough was enough. I still hate the thing on sight, and can't even bring myself to touch it long enough to sell it on e-bay. Grr

My dear husband then gave me a Brinsea Eco 20 for Christmas this year, and I couldn't believe the difference. I went from a high maintenance incubator that never did it's job, despite all the cajoling in the world, to a unit that was solid and faithful. It holds temperatures like it's the only thing keeping the world turning. The egg-tray is high enough above the water wells that you can't swamp the eggs, and the design for turning the unit is ingenious. No more exposing eggs to bacteria to turn them!

I'm in love. And I'm never going back. I wish I hadn't tried to be cheap before. My '60 dollar' incubator cost me close to 300 in failed hatches. So not worth it. Incubators are definitely one of those things where you just pay the little extra for the quality.

 

[Peter1975]

Thanks guys!
I've alway made my own so was a bit lost with a factory made unit. It's a bit naughty that it doesnt work straight out of the box.
I'll do what you guy recommend and fingers crossed my friend will have more luck
kind regards
pete