Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator

Upon initial inspection of the Brinsea Mini Advance, the first thing one notices is the incubator’s quality construction. The incubator’s see-through dome top, which provides superior egg viewing during incubation and hatch, is made of quality acrylic; while the base and egg turning tray are made of a durable high-gloss plastic. The digital display housing, which sits atop the see-through dome, is likewise constructed of quality plastic. In terms of durability, these materials offer a major advantage over cheaper styrofoam incubators. Moreover, the use of high-grade plastic provides a better hatching environment and makes post-hatch cleanup easier in contrast to styrofoam incubators, which can often harbor bacteria. In its overall appearance and design, the Mini Advance is somewhat reminiscent of the well-known Marsh Turn-X incubator by Lyon Electric. However, the Brinsea Mini Advance is more modern in appearance and features Brinsea’s signature yellow and black color scheme. More importantly, the Mini Advance offers similar features as the Marsh Turn-X but at just one-third the cost of that incubator. And unlike the Marsh Turn-X, the Mini Advance features digital programming of the most common incubation settings. In short, the Mini Advance gives the immediate impression of being a well-made and sophisticated little incubator.

At eight inches in diameter, the Mini Advance is the smallest incubator in the Brinsea lineup and hence the “mini” designation. Because of its small footprint the Mini Advance can be setup nearly anywhere, making it ideal for those with limited space. The Mini Advance is intended for small clutches of eggs; its default egg turning tray accommodates 7 regular size eggs. However, by switching the automatic turning feature off and removing the egg turning tray, the Mini Advance can actually accommodate up to 10 regular size eggs. For smaller eggs, such as those of quail and pheasant, an optional 12 egg tray can be purchased separately. For the purpose of this review, I’ll be setting 7 fertile hatching eggs from our white call ducks. As a size reference, call duck eggs are only slightly larger than the average bantam chicken egg. And as you can see in the photo below, the call duck eggs fit nicely in the standard egg turning tray.

Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator

One of the most unique features of the Mini Advance is the incubator’s digital programming menu, which allows for digital programming of important incubation settings including temperature, incubation period, and egg turning frequency. Such an advanced feature is usually only found in more expensive incubators. Preparing the Mini Advance for egg incubation is made easy by this sophisticated, yet straight forward, digital menu. In fact, I had the Mini Advance up and running within a matter of minutes. With a few quick adjustments to the digital menu, the Mini Advance was ready to incubate my 7 call duck eggs. In additional to digital programming the Mini Advance also features fan-assisted air circulation and automatic egg turning, both of which are necessary for optimum incubation conditions.

The Mini Advance has two water reservoirs that are used to achieve the correct humidity during incubation. By filling the first reservoir, relative humidity inside the incubator remained around 50 percent. However, by filling the second reservoir, humidity increases to about 65 percent which is the ideal humidity during hatch. Of course, this will vary according the environment in which the incubator is set up. Nonetheless, the incubator’s water reservoirs are easy to access and manual humidity control is relatively easy to maintain in such a small incubator. For those requiring automatic humidity control, Brinsea offers the Mini Advance EX which includes an external water reservoir and digital humidity control.

The Mini Advance arrives factory set to the optimum incubation temperature of 99.5 degrees. Within only a few minutes of setting my call duck eggs in the incubator, the Mini Advance had reached this temperature. More importantly, the Mini Advance has steadily held the temperature between 99.5 to 99.6 degrees throughout the duration of the incubation period with no adjustments made on my part. Should the temperature ever exceed the recommended range for safe egg incubation, the Mini Advance will sound an alarm. This important feature is not usually found in other small tabletop incubators. Using the digital menu, I was able to program the incubator to automatically turn the eggs every hour. A chime sounds each time the eggs are turned; however, the motor that rotates the egg turning tray remains relatively quite when in use. With the exception of refilling the water reservoirs occasionally during incubation the Mini Advance is truly a set-n-go type incubator, requiring very little user oversight during incubation.

Brinsea Mini Advance and Call Ducklings

In short, the Mini Advance is a quality small incubator that achieves and maintains the correct incubation conditions for hatching a variety of fowl eggs using technology usually only seen in more expensive models. At the time of this blog post, all 7  call duck eggs were developing. And by the following week, all 7 call ducklings had successfully hatched. In other words, I achieved a 100% hatch rate using the Brinsea Mini Advance for this particular hatch. You can visit my call duck egg incubation page to follow the incubation and hatch of these eggs. For those of us who raise and breed call ducks, it’s well known that call duck eggs are notoriously difficult to incubate and hatch. Nonetheless, the Brinsea Mini Advance did an excellent job of incubating eggs that usually require close supervision and the use of more expensive equipment. By incorporating automatic egg turning, fan-assisted air circulation, and digital programming into the Mini Advance, Brinsea has brought advanced incubation technology to the poultry hobbyist at a very reasonable price. And while the Mini Advance’s easy-to-use features are ideal for the novice, its level of sophistication is equally suited to the more discerning fowl breeder who regularly needs to incubate a small number of difficult-to-hatch eggs.

Brinsea’s mini incubators are available in three versions: the Mini Eco, the Mini Advance, and the Mini Advance EX. The Mini Eco is the entry level model, whereas the Mini Advance EX represents the most feature-rich model with automatic humidity control. The Mini Advance represents the mid-line model combing both low cost and advanced incubation technology. To purchase the Brinsea Mini Advance or learn more about Brinsea’s quality incubators, please visit the Brinsea web site. If you’ve used the Brinsea Mini Advance with success and would like to share your experience with this incubator, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Brinsea Mini Advance Incubator: Watch Your Eggs Hatch, Every Time!

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I had initially considered building the mandarins an on-the-ground aviary with shrubs and other natural cover. However, ducks are notoriously messy with water and on-the-ground aviaries require regular maintenance and up keep. On the other hand, the raised pens that I use for my call ducks remain very clean with little effort on my part. In fact, the only real maintenance involved with the raised duck pens is emptying dirty pond water a couple times a week. And this is made easy by using a mortar mixing tub for the pond and releasing a drain that I installed on the underside of each tub. My call ducks seem happy and their feathers stay cleaner than they would if kept on the ground, plus they don’t come into contact with any dirt with which to create annoying and bacteria-infested mud puddles. Moreover, unlike on-the-ground aviaries, raised pens are more secure as predators are unable to dig underneath pens of this design. In short, I’ve been very pleased with the raised pen design that I use with my white call ducks. As such I decided to put utility and cleanliness before aesthetics and built a modified raised duck pen for my mandarin ducks as well. You can see the completed mandarin pen in the photos below.

Raised Duck Pen & Mandarin Ducks

Like our raised call duck pen, this new pen is constructed of pressure-treated wood and stands 6 feet tall. The floor of the pen consists of galvanized hardware cloth and sits right at 3 feet. As such, the birds are actually at eye level which makes for easy viewing. A 20 gallon mortar mixing tub, which can be purchased at Home Depot, sits within a frame in the floor of the pen and serves as the duck’s pond. Any water splashed out of the pond falls right through the hardware cloth. Therefore, the ducks can never come into contact with any mud with which to dirty their feathers. The corner posts of the pen are constructed of 4x4s, whereas the frame of the pen in made of 2x4s. The covered shelter is two stories. The upper level consists of four separate wood duck style nest boxes. Each nest box is 1 foot in width by 2 feet in depth. There is a perch that runs the width of the pen underneath each nest box entrance hole. The floor of the nest boxes are covered with several inches of pine shavings, and there is a hardware cloth ladder leading out of each nest box to assist ducklings when climbing out of the nest. The lower level of the shelter is a communal area where feed is offered and provide shelter from the elements. The floor of this area is also covered with  shavings for added warmth and comfort.

As you can see, I added an oak branch for natural perching that leads from the floor up to the nest box ledge. I put two potted plants (variegated hostas) in the pen to give it a more natural feeling. Unfortunately, the ducks have already started to eat the leaves off the hostas, so I think I will replace them with some kind of spreading evergreen. I think the mandarins will be less inclined to eat evergreen shrubs. Moreover, evergreens are winter hardy and will add some color to the pen throughout the colder months. I also placed a planter with ornamental sweet potato vine on top of the pen. The idea is that this vine will cascade down one side of the pen, providing shade and natural cover for the mandarins. I’ll probably add an additional oak branch or two before all is said and done. The idea is to make the mandarins as comfortable and secure as possible even though the pen was built with utility in mind. By adding tree branches and plants to the pen, I think the mandarins will feel more secure and at home.

Raised Duck Pen & Mandarin Ducks

The day after adding my mandarins to their new pen I saw my white mandarin pair breeding in the pond. This was actually the first time I had seen this behavior, and it confirmed my suspicion that my two white mandarins had paired up. For those unfamiliar with this breed, mandarin ducks typically form pair bonds that are reestablished year after year. My white mandarin drake was the last bird added to my mandarin flock and was initially shunned by the white hen. However, the two birds have since bonded. They are almost always seen next to one another whether perching together on a branch or basking in the sun next to one another. Needless to say, I am pleased that these two have paired up. My plan is to eventually  build an additional pen for each mandarin pair. This way each pair will be able to have a secure and private home in which to breed and rear their young. This will also eliminate quarrels between mandarin drakes, which tend to increase during the breeding season. During the non-breeding season I will then put all the mandarins back together in a communal pen. Doing so will imitate wild mandarin behavior as the birds generally pair up together during the breeding season, then flock together during the colder months. If you raise mandarins or are interested in learning more about these fascinating ducks, then you might consider visiting the North American Mandarin Breeders Association.

Note: One shortcoming of the raised pen design should be mentioned. It has been observed by experienced mandarin breeders that the mandarin duck will not lay eggs if raised on wire. To account for this, I have created a thin plywood insert that sits on the wire and covers the entire pen floor. During the breeding season I will place this plywood on the floor of then pen, then removed it after the mandarin hens lay and incubate their eggs.

November 22th Update: I received my new pair of mandarins as expected. Unfortunately, the hen escaped not long after receiving the pair. So I decided to order a replacement hen, as well as a white mandarin hen and an additional split-to-white mandarin drake. In other words, I’ve now ended up with two pairs of mandarins: a split-to-white drake with a white hen and another split-to-white drake with a regular hen. I soon hope to acquire another regular hen and a white drake. This will give us two split-to-white pairs and one white pair from which to breed mandarins this coming spring.

Mandarin Drake

]]> http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=468 3 http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?p=409 http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?p=409#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:20:18 +0000 Scott http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?p=409 I just purchased 8 Black East Indies hatching eggs that are due to arrive in a few days. I had been trying to acquire some Black East Indies hatching eggs for some time. Unfortunately, they’re not the easiest duck breed to locate. To acquire these elusive little ducks, you either have to order an adults from a hatchery or waterfowl farm (which often involves being put on a waiting list) or you have to know someone who has Black East Indies hatching eggs for sale. For several months, I had been posting on the BackYardChickens Discussion Forum that I was hoping to acquie some Black East Indies. I was finally contacted by someone today that has a trio of Black East Indies, and they kindly offered to sell me some of their hatching eggs. Needless to say, I was thrilled!

For those you who are unfamiliar with Black East Indies, they are a bantam breed of domestic duck known for their exotic appearance. Black East Indies typically weigh less than two pounds. Most notably, their feathers are black with a radiant green iridescence which shimmers in the sunlight. Although they are similar in size to Call Ducks, Black East Indies are more racier and streamline in appearance. They essentially look like a miniature of the Cayuga Duck. Once I receive the hatching eggs, they will be set under one of my broody cochin hens for 28 days until they hatch. It goes without saying that I am hoping for a good hatch rate. October is late in the year to be hatching and rearing ducklings, but I think they should be fine. Ideally, I’d like to get at least one drake and three hens out of the hatch. Once the Black East Indies ducklings are old enough to leave their hen, I hope to add them to the duck pen along with my White Call Ducks.

November 8th, 2009 Update: The Black East Indies eggs arrived as expected, and they were set under one of our broody cochin hens. Unfortunately, none of the Black East Indies eggs hatched. By November 3rd, I had discarded 4 of the 7 eggs as they were not developing. The other three were however, and I heard definite peeping and movement in two of those three eggs. Nonetheless, by the 5th none of those eggs had hatched. As such, the ducklings must have died right before hatch. Its possible that setting the eggs this late in the season had a detrimental effect on the would be ducklings. Although disappointing, this sometimes happens. Circumstances must be just right for eggs to develop and ducklings hatch. Perhaps we will try to hatch black east indies again this coming spring.

Black East Indies

January 17th Update: The original pen has pen completed; however, I am currently making a second duck pen like this one. However, it will include a larger pond using a 80-100 gallon stock tank. Also, the house will be divided into four sections: three of those sections will be nest boxes. The forth section will contain a feeder. This new pen will house 2 to 3 mandarin pairs. I still need to paint the first pen barn red to match the adjacent chicken house.

New Duck Pen During Construction

]]> http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=424 3 http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?p=361 http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?p=361#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:07:25 +0000 Scott http://www.ozarkbantams.com/blog/?p=361 I recently stumbled across these construction plans for a basic chicken house and pen. Fall is often a great time to start a new building project, so I thought I’d share these construction plans with the hope that someone might be able to make good use of them. This chicken house caught my eye for two reasons. First of all, this chicken house would be great for the first-time poultry hobbyist looking for a straight forward, yet functional, design. Secondly, this chicken house is so similar in design to our own chicken house, which can be seen here. Even the interior layout is identical to our chicken house, with roosts along the back wall and nest-boxes on the front wall next to the door. It is, however, less than half the size of our chicken house. Nonetheless, I think this chicken house would be ideal for a small flock of bantams or a half dozen laying hens. The one modification I would suggest, however, is to make the width of the structure 8 feet wide instead of 6 feet wide. By making the house 8 feet wide, you would increase valuable floor space and also minimize sawing as most lumber is typically purchased in 8 foot lengths. At any rate, hopefully someone will find this design useful to their needs. If you are looking for more chicken coop plans, I’d suggest visiting this page by the North Dakota University Extension Service. It has dozens of free chicken house plans available for download in PDF format.

Simple Chicken House (Click For Full-Size Image)

September 25th, 2009 Update: My new white cochin pullet began laying last week, so I was pretty close on guessing her age to be around 4 or 5 months old when I bought her. Cochin pullets begin laying at around 6 months of age. As is normal, her first eggs are considerably smaller than they will be after this her first laying season. If fact, they are about half the size of my other laying hens.

White Cochin Bantams

Update (July 15th): Out of the six eggs, five ducklings ended up hatching. By this morning, all of them had dried off, were moving around quite a bit, and seem healthy and happy. I gave them some water, and they began eating today. The hen seems as proud as can be of her new brood. Here are some updated photos…

Recently Hatched White Call Ducklings