Mini II Advance Egg Incubator with Automatic Egg Turning and Temperature Control for Hatching 7 Chicken, Duck, or Other Eggs, Ideal Incubator for Hobbyists, Teachers, and Learners

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 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!

I bought two of these so I could incubate multiple small batches of eggs. The incubators worked perfectly during a week long test and then the actual incubation. Lessons learned: 1. Different eggs roll differently. No two eggs are exactly alike so test your incubator to make sure of the roll time you will need for the general size of egg you will be incubating. I marked the large end of each egg with an arrow and was able to tell how much roll I was getting on each one. (The test had shown me that the standard/default roll time for a chicken egg was not long enough for the size of the chicken eggs I was incubating.) 2. I question the idea of leaving the hatched chicks in the incubator any longer than necessary to get them up and running. It is very, very crowded in there with unhatched eggs and newly hatched chicks trying to occupy the same small space. I transferred chicks to the pre-heated brooder as soon as they got their legs under them and were dry--took about 4 hours for most of the chicks. The brooder temperature was only a little lower than the incubator so there was no temperature shock. They were very happy to get out of the crowded incubator.

This was my first ever attempt at hatching fertile eggs. I purchased the eggs from an online store, shipped cross country. The incubator was very easy to set up for a first timer, instructions were very clear. I had 12 Pharaoh Coturnix Quail eggs. From those 12, 8 of them developed, and 7 of them hatched. I was very pleased with this turn out! The 8th one that did not hatch had formed with it's head facing the wrong way so it could not get out of the egg. I purchased the 12 small egg turning disk from Amazon, as well as some non-slip grip to make a hatching mat rather than using the cardboard one included. The unit does not have a sensor for humidity, which I was originally concerned about, but I just followed the instructions to maintain water at a certain rate, and it seems to have worked out just fine! All in all, great little incubator for a reasonable price. Love the ability to see everything while it's happening.

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.

(All activity in this review has occurred since February 2019)- Purchased my first Mini II Advance from a different site brand new (end of Jan 2019). IT WORKS AWESOME! Holds humidity, maintains temperature, super easy user face, and rotation works perfectly. Entire unit works like a dream. I loved it so much, I bought a 2nd Mini II Advanced (from Amazon this time.) - This one worked about 30 days then died.. I returned it to Amazon. BRINSEA wanted to charge me an $11.xx "restocking fee" to accept the bator back... Then BRINSEA decided to charge me a $29.xx restocking fee instead of the $11.xx initially said. WHAT?! This is RIDICULOUS! I called Amazon Rep, they advised me it is Brinsea making this charge, not Amazon.. I get off the phone with Amazon, call Brinsea in Florida. spoke to manager, she explained 'restocking fee' - I again advised ridiculous! Why charge me to restock an item that is BROKEN and doesn't need to be resold?! It is not my fault this is junk, and broke in 30 days! I get off the phone with rude Manager at Brinsea - I called back to Amazon, explained the situation. The Amazon Rep put me on hold, spoke to her Manager, and they agreed I should not be charged a restocking fee for a broken item at 30 days old. They decided the override the B.S. charge from Brinsea, and gave me back the full amount. Thank you Amazon Customer Service Dept for making this right! So this 2nd Brinsea I bought was sent back. I am back down to one.. I decided to try one more time, decided to get 1 more Mini II Advanced (bought this one from Amazon.)-it was delivered around 3/13/19. I did not take it out to use/start until around 3/18/19. ( now have eggs!) - After approx 20 minutes of working, the motor started to pop and crack... like popcorn. The motor stayed on, and the sounds eventually stopped. I work from home, so I have it on my desk, watching it for hours, and monitoring it's activity before deciding to put in the eggs. After a few hours it started again, popping and crackling in the motor, and the turner was making a loud sound as it rotated the disc back and forth (nothing in the bator, except a small trusted hygrometer)- intermittently the sound would return. After a few days, it died completely.. I unplugged it, and decided to wait until the next day, and would try again.. Plugged in the next day, and it started back up.. after a few minutes, the motor popping/crackling started again, and died that same day, Would not turn on again. Now I have to send this hunk of junk back. Return process started 3/26/19. My review is mixed, because 1 out of 3 are good. There is clearly MAJOR defects and quality control issues with this company. I called Brinsea again -and the Manager lady wanted to argue with me they are the 'industry standard' and offer customers superior British craftsmanship. I vehemently disagreed. and Also told her to maintain a 99.5 degree temp, the temperature gauge on the interface needs to be set around 101.5 - 102.5 (depending on room temp)- because the 1/8" temperature reader built in the unit is at the top center of the motor/ceiling of the dome.. WHY?! is what I asked the Manager .. WHY would your superior British engineers put a tiny thermometer gauge at the top center of the dome beside the motor/fan when the eggs are several inches below, and under the think plastic wall between the thermometer and the eggs?! How dumb! where is the forethought? Why not put the thermometer where the eggs are located to get an ACCURATE reading? Also, they need to have some sort of method/new design for the top to get it off easier and with less chance of damage. Once the chicks hatch, (as they did in the first one I bought)- there is a lot of fuzzy and hair type debris around the fan planks, and in the motor. So after each use, you will need to disassemble the unit entirely, take out the screws and GENTLY hand wipe it down, to get the built up fuzz/feathers/debris off the fan/out of the motor. That is another design flaw. All things considered, if you get a unit that actually works, it is a super nice unit, and VERY Dependable.. unfortunately you may have to go through duds that break in the first week-30 days before you find that good one. Major design flaws, major quality control issues, and major issues with the Customer Service Dept with Brinsea. Very unfortunate! I now how to look for a different brand, maybe the first one i bought from a different site is not the 'norm'- because it is running brilliantly in it's 2nd month of constant use (no down time!)

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.