Mini II Advance Egg Incubator

I knew before I purchased this incubator that I love it. I have been borrowing one from a friend for a couple of years. She uses hers too much now to loan it out. So I knew the Brinsea would last. I looked at some cheaper units, but there was no indication in the reviews that they had been used repeatedly. I'd rather pay more upfront for a good unit than have to replace after a few uses. I will be hatching Serama chicks. I have a prize hen whose offspring should be salable and show well, so I wanted a really reliable unit. This incubator is so easy to use. It's set and then pretty much forget except for adding a little water every third day or so. (They have added a place where you can add water now without opening the incubator. A great improvement.) The temperature and humidity are regulated and the eggs are automatically turned. You can set the temperature and turning to your specifications. You can see on the top how many days are left until your hatch is expected. 2 days before the due date I remove the egg turning plate. The incubator knows to quit turning. I cut a soft paper towel to fit the bottom so the chick's feet won't slip and add more water to raise the humidity. The Brinsea comes with a corrugated pad for chicks to stand on but the corrugations are too deep for Serama chicks. They're much smaller than regular large fowl chicks. You can see the chicks pipping and hatching quite well. If one has trouble you can see and gently help. I'm not expecting a great hatch rate since I'm collecting eggs from one hen, some eggs will be nearly 2 weeks old. I'll add to this later if need be. One more thing. For Serama eggs I bought the additional small egg turning plate. It has 12 holes for eggs instead of the 7 for large fowl eggs. This is a small incubator but I"m a small operation. 12 chicks would be plenty for me and probably I'll end up with closer to 6. That's fine too. The only thing that I don't enjoy about hatching my own eggs is cockerels. If you buy sexed eggs from a hatchery you're all set with little baby pullets. If you hatch your own unsexed eggs, on average 60% will be cockerels. That's a pretty reliable statistic. I struggle with having enough hens to pair with cocks.

Great incubator for a small farm! This is the first incubator I have ever used, and I managed an 83% hatch rate on my chicken eggs (which I hear is really good!). 20/24 eggs successfully hatched; the other 4 were not viable at the 10 day mark, so these may have been a fertility/egg viability issue. I followed the instructions that came with the incubator and it worked perfectly. It monitors ambient air temperature of the room, which helps to make sure it functions optimally. I had to move it to a climate controlled space, and kept the air temperature around 67°F. There is no humidity gauge, but the incubator instructions tell you how to maintain a good humidity level. The water input spout is small but easy to judge if more water is needed, which I was able to keep in check by adding water 2x a day. Zero smell until hatching began, then it was only right over the machine. Cleaning is no mean feat- hatching is dirty business! the bottom tray was easy, but the cover had to be partially disassembled to properly clean, which should probably be done after each hatch. The manual covers cleaning the machine as well, so I had no problems figuring it all out.

I purchased this incubator for hatching Serama chicks (which are notoriously difficult to hatch). I also bought the optional egg insert for bantam eggs (purchased separately) for this purpose. The incubator worked wonderfully. Successful hatch and it held humidity (I live in mid-FL) and temp perfectly. Turner works as advertised (though I did not use it for this hatch as I had shipped eggs with displaced air cells). This incubator has an lcd display and settings that allow you to personalize the temp, days to hatch, turn time, etc... so no matter what bird you are hatching, this should work to make your life easier. I had an issue with the incubator, as the alcohol solution I used to clean it after hatch caused the plastic dome with new antimicrobial plastic to cloud and degrade. I called the company and a human being answered on the second ring. They listened to my issue carefully, had me email in pictures, and are investigating the issue. They sent me another incubator to replace the one with issues as well as a return label for the other incubator. Bottom line... It is not often you find a product that is this well-designed with a company willing to stand behind their workmanship with such integrity. I will be using their products from here on out for ease of use and reliability. Thanks Brinsea!!!

I used this to incubate some of our guinea eggs. Guinea keets are smaller than chicks and I unfortunately had a learning curve. First, do NOT throw away the corrugated cardboard circle that fits into the bottom on the incubator and looks like packaging material. Before you go into lockdown mode, the egg turner disk must be removed and this cardboard disk goes into that spot. If you are hatching smaller birds, place countertop liner on top of this and staple it down!! This is essential! I just used the cardboard disk which was my downfall. Our first keet hatched and a few hours afterwards he was walking around, but his legs kept sliding in the grooves of the cardboard (picture a chick doing the splits). After watching this for a few hours (and yes he was fully dry), I quickly opened the incubator and removed him as I was afraid he was going to develop spraddle leg. He flourished in the brooder, but I am pretty sure that I doomed my other eggs by letting the humidity out as they were egg bound and it was awful to watch. If you are hatching chicken eggs, the cardboard disk might be enough. However, I would still recommend the extra precaution of cabinet liner just so they don’t slip. Another tip - set the temperature on the incubator and just let it be. I tried sticking all kinds of thermometers in there and every single one read a slightly different temperature. I drove myself nuts doing this until I realized that the temperature under a mother hen is never 100% consistent and uniform over all the eggs. (See update - used warm mist humidifier next to incubator in second hatch!) If you are hatching larger chicks, I would definitely not put seven eggs in as there is not a lot of room in there. However, all in all I’m pleased with this little incubator and hopefully next time will have better luck with my guinea eggs. Update 6/17/19 We used it again for five more guinea eggs. This time I used the cabinet liner material which I stapled down to the cardboard insert. I also put a warm mist humidifier next to the humidifier (humidity outside the humidifier was around 55% with this in place). I will do this again next time. I actually placed the eggs in a few days before they hatched (my guinea abandoned the nest) and I was candling them up to 12 hours before they hatched as I had no idea how close they were. All eggs hatched successfully and the liner worked perfectly. No one was slipping and all the chicks hatched pretty quickly. I will do everything exactly the same next time. Success!

Hello! This packaged arrived intact, and carefully wrapped. It's a great product and is everything that's in the web description.

Their brooder panels worked so good i bought this, while it worked i am not as impressed as with the panels. The menu is a bit complicated and if you accidentally turn on the cool down feature it will drop temp every 24 hours. so be warned. Clear dome is great and kids love watching everything on the kitchen counter. It turns eggs, maintained humidity, and hatched chicks for all to see... The cardboard hatch pads/inserts are easy enough you can get the kids to make one, so don't use the original except as a template for cutting more. Clean up on the base part is easy as its very simple to disassemble and rinse clean don't forget the water tubing. upper portion cleans well of down fluff and dust with a blast of compressed air and wiping off. i reccomend running it a couple hours post cleaning to ensure it comes up to temp and will naturally dry out with the heat that way for storage.

The first one I bought arrived without all the supplies in it - and the wrong egg plate. So, I returned it. The second one arrived and I have successfully hatched about 9 chicks with 3 incubation periods (9 out of 21 eggs - not a good percentage). But, I did have success. It seemed to work adequately. I followed their recommendations to a "T" for cleaning/maintenance in between batches. I took care of it (I paid a lot of money for this!) However, on my fourth batch, the automatic turner quit working and water started leaking out of the well into the flat area where the plate turns. Now, after reading other reviews, I am anticipating a fight with Brinsea over a return/replacement and paying an unjustified "restocking fee" for a broken product. I have yet to hear anything back from them, and I did register it for the warranty as soon as I received it, so hopefully they will cover a replacement that actually works - third time, hopefully, will be a charm. I was hesitant to go with any other brand of incubator as Brinsea seemed to float to the top for value and quality. I'm not finding that to be the case. Perhaps they used to be, but at this present moment, that is proving to be wrong in so far as what I have experienced. I will update as I get further into this issue. I don't know that I would put out that kind of money again for this product when it has not been reliable. I'll have to research incubators again and find a more reliable manufacturer I guess. UPDATE: Still no reply from the Brinsea website or by phone directly. Apparently they just say they offer a warranty and DO NOT honor it. I am downgrading my rating to 1 star. The product does not work and their customer service is deplorable. I will never purchase a Brinsea product again.

Seeing new life hatch into existence is incredible. This incubator is a step above the traditional. Set fertilized eggs, set time, temperature, add water for moisture level, watch chicks hatch.