Brinsea Maxi 24 Advance Egg Incubator Classroom Kit Brooder Pack for Students with Lesson Plan, Egg Scope, EcoGlow Brooder, Plastic Chick Enclosure, Feeder and Drinker for Hatching Chicks, Ducklings

The media could not be loaded. 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.

We went from having fertilized eggs to having happy and healthy adult chickens!

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.

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 6/17/19We 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!

Love mine after third hatch. Only thing I would change is the head space for chicks first getting around.

I recommend this brinsea advance mini 11 first hatch 5 out of 6 chicks hatched second hatch 6 out of 7 hatched. The temperature fluctuated, but I left the incubator on 100.2 and kept the outside water full. humidity was between 30 and 40 through the whole hatch, super easy 03/11/25