Tag: poultry incubator

Brinsea Mini Eco incubator

I had a customer ask about the Brinsea Mini Eco incubator… so since I took a number of photos to show them, it makes sense to share more details of this incubator on the blog. Yes yes, very weird of me to actually write about incubators on a poultry equipment shop blog, since I’ve written about ‘everything else’ and recipes 🙂 This will be only the second post on an actual incubator!

The Brinsea Mini Eco is a very cute (yes that’s my description, not Jeff’s – I don’t believe Jeff has ever called anything, much less an incubator ‘cute’ – probably not even the dogs when they were puppies 🙂 The Mini Eco makes it very easy to see the eggs with a clear top, great for watching the eggs hatch. It is classified as a 10 egg manual turn incubator but that will depend on the size of your eggs.

It has heat cables, is pre-set to 99.5F and comes with a glass thermometer. The Brinsea Mini Eco is a fan air circulated incubator. From a cleaning perspective (always something I think about!) the heat cables and fan are tucked away in the top of the unit, and like most incubators appreciate a vacuum when the machine is turned off and dry – the computer cleaning attachments for vacuum cleaners make this job even easier.

Humidity is managed with the water dishes in the base, you can keep on eye on this when you turn your eggs. As with all Brinsea products there is a lovely 2 year parts only warranty. Please note, a Mini Eco can not be ‘upgraded’ to a Mini Advance or Mini Advance EX due to their design.

To find this incubator on our website: https://wapoultryequipment.net.au/product/incubator-brinsea-mini-eco/

Incubators: The 16 Egg Semi-auto Cova Tutto

So for something new, I’m actually going to do another incubator review! Jeff gives me hass that there are more recipes on this blog than incubators.  So today’s topic: the cute little 16 egg semi-auto Cova Tutto incubator.  CovaTutto 16 Semi

Anyone who talks to me about incubators rapidly discovers my favourite of our range is the Italian Cova Tuttos.  For me their big selling point is the ability to deal with any egg size.  We have many customers who may start with ‘a few chickens’…  who then find themselves the owners of some of bantams, a duck and eventually a couple geese – which they couldn’t say no to 🙂

The current model of the 16 egg Cova Tutto semi-auto incubator is a newer version of the one that hatched my rooster Bruce in our son’sCova Tutto 16 HT - globes classroom.  The Italians have smartly, now included 3 smaller globes (max 25W) rather than the one 60W globe of old.  This gives advantage that if one globe does unexpectedly blow the other two keep temperature.

It also now has a very handy egg turning Cova Tutto 16 HT - handlesetup which allows it to fit into the Semi auto or Handle turn category. This allows all the eggs to turned in one motion rather than having to turn each egg individually.  Cova Tutto 16 HT - handle set up

 

This is a still air machine, there is no fan.  It comes with a thermometer and complete instructions along with our hints & tips sheet.  The water can be without lifting the lid via the external water pan.

Cova Tutto 16HT working To be completely happy with the machine I ran it here at the shop and discovered that in our 24C room the incubator ran up to temperature in under 10 mins – I usually suggest putting the incubator on a least 30 mins before putting eggs in it.
In fact with a new machine, if time allows, running it for a day or so to ‘get happy’ with how it works and reassure yourself that you it is working correctly can be useful it you are as pedantic as me 🙂

Notes from our customers – this is a globe incubator, when it gets close to temperature the lights flash on/off – don’t put it in a bedroom – no matter how hard the child begs!  It will keep them awake.

To find this incubator on our website: https://wapoultryequipment.net.au/product/incubator-cova-tutto-16-egg-handle-turn/