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

[WVduckchick]

I have the eco and I bought the cradle too. The ONLY reason I would get the advanced would be for the humidity pump. I really struggle with humidity, especially at lockdown, with the Eco. It likes lower humidity and I like higher humidity! I don't like having to remove the whole tray to add water every other day and lockdown can be a nightmare for me. Also, I'm not crazy about the cradle. I have bantam eggs and they slip around in the rails and I don't think they get turned efficiently. I'm actually not using the cradle at all with my current batch and doing the turning by hand. I like using my own calibrated thermo's & hygro's so that's a plus for the Eco.

Ruby, I dont understand why they only include the foam strips with the pump, but it came with porous foam strips that fit in the rails and hold the eggs nicely. I'm sure you could make some out of something. I worried about circulation, but I've packed it full and I can't imagine not having them, especially for bantam eggs.

 

[FridayYet]

Ruby, I dont understand why they only include the foam strips with the pump, but it came with porous foam strips that fit in the rails and hold the eggs nicely. I'm sure you could make some out of something. I worried about circulation, but I've packed it full and I can't imagine not having them, especially for bantam eggs.

X 2. I can't imagine using the rails without the foam strips.

 

[RubyNala97]

Ruby, I dont understand why they only include the foam strips with the pump, but it came with porous foam strips that fit in the rails and hold the eggs nicely. I'm sure you could make some out of something. I worried about circulation, but I've packed it full and I can't imagine not having them, especially for bantam eggs.

X 2.  I can't imagine using the rails without the foam strips.

Ok, so you guys know what I mean when I say the eggs sorta slip out of place and are in funky positions? Last time I took tissues and tried to fill in all the gaps. Can you post a pic of the strips? I might be able to find them in the replacement part section of the website.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Ruby they do them over here as an extra part so you should be able to get them there.

I use them to wedge eggs in too if I'm not using them in the dividers, they fill the end of the rows up ~

 

[WVduckchick]

Ruby they do them over here as an extra part so you should be able to get them there.



I use them to wedge eggs in too if I'm not using them in the dividers, they fill the end of the rows up ~

Awesome Yorkshire! I just uploaded a pic when I saw yours. Thanks

I do the exact same with mine. Sometimes don't even use the rail, just the foam.

 

[RubyNala97]

Ruby they do them over here as an extra part so you should be able to get them there.

I use them to wedge eggs in too if I'm not using them in the dividers, they fill the end of the rows up ~

Thank you! Yes, that looks like the perfect solution. That's what I was trying to do with the tissues but after a day they would settle in and I'd have to keep adding more.

 

[henney penny]

I just got my octogon 20 and just posted about keeping my silkie eggs in place,great idea.I just put in a few to start and put paper towels in to keep them in place,then someone told me they use empty paper towel rolls cut to size put up against the eggs,so thats what I am using right now.I did email the company and told them for the money these things cost you would think they would come up with something permanent

 

[SeattleSelkie]

Hope you all might have some advice for me.
I have an octagon 20 advance, no humidity pump.
I have had good hatches, including my last one during which I had three long power outages and was going on/off generator and even driving to neighbor's houses when we ran out of fuel.

But I just finished up a hatch that I am puzzled by.
Humidity was good all through. I normally run in the mid-high 30%s until lockdown, then 65-70% during lockdown. My air cells were good. I candled at 7 and 17 days. All looked good to me.

I had a mix of Welsummer and OE eggs. All from my birds. All the OE eggs hatched on time and without problem.
Of the 11 Wellie eggs, 4 hatched normally. Two pipped at the wrong end, with one getting out by itself without problem. The other sat for over 24 hours without further pipping, so I assisted. While he made it out, he had severe spraddle legs, seemed to have very labored breathing and I suspect from the little rattle he had inhaled fluid in his lungs. I euthanized him this morning as he seemed in distress, even after 24 hours out of the egg.

The remaining 5 eggs, at eggtopsy, all had chicks which had failed to turn themselves and were dead. When I opened the air cell end all I saw were butts and ankles.

My question is why did seven of 11 eggs have chicks that didn't turn? The only thing I did different this time was use the "cooling" option for the first time. I had it set from days 8-18 at the shortest time frame (30 minutes). Was this the cause? Or something else? Curious if the experienced hatchers can help me figure this one out.

And to help dispell my depression, here is a pic of some of those who did hatch......

 

[dekel18042]

Hope you all might have some advice for me.
I have an octagon 20 advance, no humidity pump.
I have had good hatches, including my last one during which I had three long power outages and was going on/off generator and even driving to neighbor's houses when we ran out of fuel.

But I just finished up a hatch that I am puzzled by.
Humidity was good all through. I normally run in the mid-high 30%s until lockdown, then 65-70% during lockdown. My air cells were good. I candled at 7 and 17 days. All looked good to me.

I had a mix of Welsummer and OE eggs. All from my birds. All the OE eggs hatched on time and without problem.
Of the 11 Wellie eggs, 4 hatched normally. Two pipped at the wrong end, with one getting out by itself without problem. The other sat for over 24 hours without further pipping, so I assisted. While he made it out, he had severe spraddle legs, seemed to have very labored breathing and I suspect from the little rattle he had inhaled fluid in his lungs. I euthanized him this morning as he seemed in distress, even after 24 hours out of the egg.


The remaining 5 eggs, at eggtopsy, all had chicks which had failed to turn themselves and were dead. When I opened the air cell end all I saw were butts and ankles.

My question is why did seven of 11 eggs have chicks that didn't turn? The only thing I did different this time was use the "cooling" option for the first time. I had it set from days 8-18 at the shortest time frame (30 minutes). Was this the cause? Or something else? Curious if the experienced hatchers can help me figure this one out.

And to help dispell my depression, here is a pic of some of those who did hatch......

Adorable chicks! I have the Octagon 20 advance and have used the cooling option for all my hatches with no problem so I doubt that is it. Is there any way your eggs rolled or turned so that the chick was in the wrong position and couldn't right itself for hatching? I know the last few days chicks get into position so anything that might affect that could cause a problem. I've had hatched chicks still in the incubator roll an egg that had pipped out of hatching position and I lost the chick when I didn't realize this had happened.
We've assisted chicks that had their heads in the small end of the egg and had pipped there and couldn't zip and they survived.
I've read about this and follow it. I candle going into lockdown and put a small penciled line on the egg marking where the air cell is. When I return the egg to the incubator I place each egg so that this side is up and usually that is the area the pips occur.
I'm assuming your chicks never pipped? Sometimes if they pip and don't/can't turn it's because you have a big chick in the egg and he is crowded and can't zip. We've had that several times.
I'm curious, what is the other half of your equation with the olive egger chicks? I hatched some last year that were cream legbar/welsummer and this year I'm trying Ameraucana/Welsummer. Last years batch lay beautiful olive eggs, some speckled.

 

[rottlady]

I have a still air hovabator and no egg turner (that be me) and I had 3 chicks this hatch who pipped out of the small end instead of big air cell end. My eggs were on their side not in cradeles at all so I can imagine if they were in those upright egg turners they would have died