Brinsea Ovation 28 Advance Egg Incubator with Humidity Display, Automatic Egg Turning, Precision Controls, Temperature Alarms for Hatching 28 Chicken, Duck, and Other Bird Eggs

I managed to get this at a super price when it went on sale. I do like this incubator, and it does a great job of getting eggs to develop. The temperature is quite accurate and steady. There are a few things I don't like though. The turner trays don't accommodate larger chicken eggs, the turner mechanism is difficult to line up after opening and then replacing the lid, and it sucks to refill the water reservoirs for humidity. Other than that, its great for hatch rate. I use this as my "setter" incubator for batches I start at different times, and use smaller incubators to hatch out the batches.

I was researching incubators to hatch Quail eggs and heard good things about the Ovation 56 Advance. Read the user manual and realized that I needed large egg carriers which had a divider to hold s the smaller Quail size eggs.Setting up the temperature on the digital display was pretty easy. The turning feature worked perfectly had set it to turn at 60 minutes.The humidity display was the best it took away the guess work and followed the instructions in the manual regarding how much water needs to be added.The RM + alarm sounded on the first day I set my eggs and thought OH NO something is wrong. But then checked in the manual regarding the alarm and noticed that the incubator had the sun rays pointing directly on to the lid that had increased the temperature, without the alarm I would never have known. I changed the position of the incubator and that solved that. Really happy with that feature.My son just loved to see the progress from eggs to chicks.They started hatching on day 18 and only lost 4 of the 70.Cleaning the Ovation 56 Advance was easy but for my next use I will buy some hatching mats I saw on Brinsea website to keep the bottom from getting dirty.The Ovation 56 Advance is very easy to use. Highly recommended.

As I was setting this up, I noticed it is rather difficult to see the water levels and you have to remove the lid to add water when needed. NEXT, the racks that hold the eggs do not easily hold NORMAL size chicken eggs, it squeezes them and that makes me worried. If you have smaller eggs, say bantam size, they will not stay up on end as directions direct. Overall, it's ok, but we weren't happy with the water issue so returning.

This is the second incubator I have purchased of this model. The first achieved 98% hatch rate routinely. This one I was only getting 25 to 30% hatch rate. I replaced the turner and heat coil and now am getting a 95% hatch rate. I waited to long to return it thinking I had just got some bad eggs. Customer support was a pain but once I spoke to them they were helpfull. It took a Facebook post to get a reply though.

It's obvious why Brinsea is an authority in incubators. This incubator is extremely reliable, easy to disinfect in-between hatches and holds it temperature like the fate of the world depends on it. The user interface is easy to use and simple to remember from year to year.- Update 11/30/22 - This incubator is still running like a clock. It's never had any sort of technical hiccup or blip and I can't even count how many lovely chicks I've hatched from it over the years. Thanks Brinsea!- Update 11/6/24 - Still doing amazing! I want to give this incubator more stars but I can't. I've never had a single issue with it and the chicks just keep hatching perfectly every time - THANK YOU BRINSEA! If you're wondering if this incubator is worth the investment - YES, yes it is. I now have two of these things and they're fabulous.

I've been using this incubator for a few years now and truly regret I purchased brand.I've hatched many many chicken eggs and have asked around. We all conclude that the fan on this particular brand dries the eggs when in lockdown and there are lots of shrink wrapped chicks.**I have another smaller incubator and the same thing. Ugh! IMO it's the brand, not just a specific model.IF the chick hatches quickly, with 2 hours you usually won't have issues. But the others that take 1/2 a day or longer WILL HAVE ISSUES getting out of the egg.I never believed in assisting a chick out of the egg until this incubator and all the shrink wrapping issues. Heartbreaking....I will be purchasing another brand this weekend.IMO people are giving it good reviews because they haven't hatch many times yet with this incubator. I try to wait to provide reviews after I've tested it. AND yes, I've had it a few years and this year I'm just fed up.

We used this incubator successfully twice. The third time we tried to incubate 2 dozen eggs. None hatched. We thought it was because of a change-up in the rooster situation on our farm. We put some quail eggs in and checked to see what temp they should incubate. It was at this point that we figured out that the incubator wasn't getting up to temp. Following the manual, we tried to increase the temp. The digital buttons would not work. We emailed a copy of our purchase receipt to Brisnea and tried to get it replaced. They supposedly come with a 3 year warranty. Long story short - they are NOT honoring the warranty. We were offered to pay shipping there and back for them to repair. Parts and service time would also be billed to us. We are done with this brand. After spending over $300 for this product, it was a real slap in the face for the warranty to not be honored - even with a copy of the purchase receipt.