Which Incubator to buy?

[brandy00]

6 Babies and the last two are both pipped externally. Wouldn't it be my luck, of 5 BBS eggs that made it to the end, 4 have hatched and are splash!! LoL, here's to hoping the last one is blue and a HEN.   :cd   We also have two blacks hatched and one more black in its egg working its way out slowly. These babies are shipped from Tennessee and they did very well. This is my first hatch in over 10 years and my first in the Brinsea. of 12 eggs, 8 were viable, 6 have hatched and 2 more are working on it. Not bad at all. The humidity was not an issue in the end and has remained fairly stable. I took out the extra containers for water just before the last chick hatched, then put one little egg slot from a carton with water back in. The wet paper towel allowed humidity to stay over 60%. Once the first chick hatched I removed the water to prevent drowning. I must say though that with 6, the bator seems super full already so I would say its not good for hatching. But its a $400 incubator...why should I have to buy/use something else for lack of space to hatch my babies? So that aspect of the Octagon 20 is crappy. I opened to removed empty shells to give more room and closed it up. Humidity goes up quickly, at least thats a plus. Pictures later tomorrow probably of all my babes when they have all arrived and are fluffy. 

Yay! I'm so happy you've had a good hatch!! I moved the batch of guinea/chicken eggs into the Brinsea a few days ago and today is lockdown. When I took the incubator out of the cradle and opened it to take the racks out I heard peeping! I have several guinea eggs internally pipped and one that must be mis positioned because it had externally pipped without ever pipping internally!

 

[brandy00]

Keets are hatching
I put a wet washcloth in my Brinsea underneath the tray so it could wick water from both of the wells. So far no problems with the humidity.

 

[huntseat]

I hope your keets are calmer than mine were. I had to remove keets every 12 hours to keep them from trampling the chicks. My keets hit the ground running, the chicks however like to lounge for a day or so and sleep.

I sprayed my eggs everytime I had to open the bator and mine seemed to do fine.

Good luck!

 

[brandy00]

I hope your keets are calmer than mine were.  I had to remove keets every 12 hours to keep them from trampling the chicks.  My keets hit the ground running, the chicks however like to lounge for a day or so and sleep.

I sprayed my eggs everytime I had to open the bator and mine seemed to do fine.

Good luck!

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I'll have to remove these little suckers pretty soon. They are already spastic lol

 

[TattooedMama]

So the final count is 7. Number 8 had some deformities so I culled it-it was the only blue too!! Heres the rest of my babies.

 

[TattooedMama]

Keets are hatching

I put a wet washcloth in my Brinsea underneath the tray so it could wick water from both of the wells. So far no problems with the humidity.

How is the rest of your hatch going?

 

[brandy00]

How is the rest of your hatch going?

Your babies are too cute! So far I have 4 guineas, 6 of my mixed chicks, and 1 BLRW. Several others are pipped. Using the washcloth under the hatching tray has worked well. The humidity has stayed pretty stable, thank goodness!

 

[Sydney Acres]

So the final count is 7. Number 8 had some deformities so I culled it-it was the only blue too!! Heres the rest of my babies.

SOOOOO cute! So sad about the blue, but still, 7 gorgeous babies.

So now that it's all done, how do you feel about the Brinsea? If you needed a second incubator, would you buy another Octagon 20, or would you get a different brand? What features did it have, or didn't have, that you thought were notably good or bad?

 

[TattooedMama]

Your babies are too cute! So far I have 4 guineas, 6 of my mixed chicks, and 1 BLRW. Several others are pipped. Using the washcloth under the hatching tray has worked well. The humidity has stayed pretty stable, thank goodness!

Thanks! I forgot how tiny they are now that my youngest were 7 weeks and huge already. The idea to put something partially in the water well was a fantastic idea and worked well for me too. So glad your hatch is going better this time around!!

 

[TattooedMama]

SOOOOO cute! So sad about the blue, but still, 7 gorgeous babies.

So now that it's all done, how do you feel about the Brinsea? If you needed a second incubator, would you buy another Octagon 20, or would you get a different brand? What features did it have, or didn't have, that you thought were notably good or bad?

I would not buy a second Brinsea unless I found it for 75% off somewhere. I will start with what I did NOT like. I disliked the small amount of space. I only had 8 eggs and it sure seemed crowded in there. Also, having two plugs on the bator (one for main unit and a separate one for the autoturn cradle) sucks; not only do I need to find an area where I have two available plugs but it's running up my electricity bill that much more. The viewing window is not as good as some of the other incubators out there. Trying to see if eggs had pipped externally was very hard. While that may not be important to some, it was for me so I could keep track of who was doing what and who might be taking too long. Even with shining a flashlight in there, ultimately I had to open the bator quickly to check the eggs. The humidity was a bit difficult to maintain prior to your suggestion to use flannel with a corner in the water well though this may have just been due to me having just under half the capacity for hen eggs. I have heard they do much better full. I'm also not sure about cleaning it, it's not the easiest to clean but i don't really ahev anything to compare it too. I still need to break down the top (unscrew) to clean the fan, etc.

On the bright side it takes up a smaller amount of space than most available models for its capacity. The machine can get back to set temperature and humidity ridiculously fast, just a few minutes. This is a great feature all round but especially for those in areas with extreme temps I would think. For example, I know someone who uses a hovabator and can't hatch many months due to no insulation in their home, temps mess with the bator and ruin the eggs. I got an excellent hatch rate. Technically I hatched 8 of 8 out of viable eggs, the last chick was simply culled due to deformity. I am confident the Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance can hatch whatever I put in it and that it will produce consistently good hatch rates (though this is an assumption as this was my first hatch). I do wish I had spent less money and got a different model but then perhaps then my hatch would not have gone so well and then I would have wished I got the Brinsea-you never know!! I will take my 7 babies, and the peace of mind that despite very small and inconvenient design flaws this machine does the job very well.