Brinsea Maxi 24 Incubator Review

In the third of the new series, we cover the large dome incubator in the Brinsea range - the Maxi 24. It can incubate many types of eggs and is great value
Incubators, brooders and candlers are all available from our shop and we would love to offer you individual advice to find the right incubation set up for you. Visit our shop at :
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[@yusuufibrahim530]

Love how informative this was ❤

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thank you

[@christinedinas3597]

Great video!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thank you!

[@dirkbosman3724]

Using 2 of the Brinsea Eco Mini incubators for a year now in South Africa, the best incubators I had so far, and am now purchasing a Maxi 24 Advance, thanks for the great content video of the product,

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Hi Dirk - we really like them too, our Maxi24 is hatching on Sunday 🙂

[@surajitghosh6986]

Thank you sir

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@surajitghosh6986 You are welcome

[@kasie680]

Oh how cool!!! I didn’t realise you had to turn that often, we had an incubator a few times when I worked at a daycare Centre and we turned once a day 🥺 we always had good results, maybe it was just luck! 🙊 the kids loved waiting for hatching, they got so excited, my favourite part was the sweet little pipping, I always felt sorry for the poor little wet thing’s because they didn’t have a fluffy warm mum to tuck under lol we raised them for a few weeks and then the kids would end up taking them home as gorgeous little pets! The only problem was we had so many roosters 😢 sometimes more then hens, the kids didn’t care but where we live you can have chooks in the town but not allowed roosters so there were some broken hearts 💔 and my place became the rooster rescue lol cause we were out of town, we found people who wanted the roosters. I wish there was a way to only hatch hens! I’d love to see a video about incubation of geese from incubation to setting them up outside. I’ve always wanted geese!!!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

You can turn just a couple of times a day but more is better. Cockerels (roosters) are something that it's really important to consider before starting - thank you for mentioning it! We would enjoy geese - maybe in the future 🙂

[@LeoTheYuty]

Looks like a great incubator! Personally, I use the Magicfly Mini Egg Incubator; it's less easy to view the eggs and chicks, and unfortunately needs a hygrometer added to measure humidity, but it's really cheap, surprisingly effective (I've gotten 8/10 of chicken eggs recently, although I think I got 100% hatch rate for one hatch before), and has no "egg spots", just a turner, allowing any egg that can fit inside to be incubated and turned correctly (used it on chickens, quail, and currently, a dove). Just leaving this comment to suggest another incubator for anyone thinking about hatching chickens.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

That's a new one on me - but if it works!

[@bgtrev]

Persevering with our goose eggs in the Maxi EX but I am now convinced it is not suitable for geese/duck eggs. The cooling feature is great but the eggs have to be removed for misting which is a daily factor after Day 10 and I have a feeling that this continued disturbance will affect our hatch rates (I hope to be proved wrong!). Also (a minor thing) I find the turning mechanism is noisy. Still it is a cracking small and well made incubator for your normal poultry eggs. Enjoy the sun over there.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

I'll be interested to hear the end results Trev. I suspect an Ovation 56 might be good for geese?

[@bgtrev]

@@EnglishCountryLife Will let you know in due course, not sure about the Ovation, we will go with our best incubator for the next batch of goose eggs.........Mother Goose!

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@bgtrev You can't beat nature for sure! Would love a few piccs of goslings in incubator if you could find the time?

[@bgtrev]

@@EnglishCountryLife If they hatch I will certainly send some, first candling looked good for all eggs but as I said the disturbance does concern me, fingers crossed (as they say).

[@bgtrev]

@@EnglishCountryLife Apologies for late response here! No pictures as no goose eggs hatched, we had some in our other basic incubator (only 3, to compare results) and they hatched. Had my concerns about the Brinsea mainly due to having to remove the eggs constantly and the egg turning system. I have Mum sitting on a batch and have reloaded the incubator but a few more goose eggs but will not spray/mist this time to see what happens but looks like a more suitable one is required.

[@jamiespeirs885]

Great video, very informative. My wife just bought me the 24. I have a question. I can't get 24 Light Sussex eggs in it. I have found the 12 duck quadrant to be more suitable. Not that I want 24 anyway. Will doing this mean that the eggs 🥚 could possibly rotate 360°? Thanks in advance for any advice Jamie

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Hi Jamie! They must be huge eggs 🙂. On the Maxi 24 you can control the turn angle. If you go into the menu structure select "Turn Ang" (turn angle). The number set is the number of seconds the turn motor runs for. Put an X in pencil on the side of an egg and an O on the other side. Set the egg with the X uppermost then adjust the Angle setting until each time it turns the O is right at the top, then the X etc. When testing this I reduce the turn interval to 5 minutes. Once I'm happy I set the turn interval to 45 minutes. I find a setting of 5 is good for turn angle. If that's confusing, give me a ring (number on the website) and we can work through it when you have the machine in front of you. Hope that helps.

[@jamiespeirs885]

@@EnglishCountryLife wonderful reply, thank you. I'll be setting up as soon as I get out of hospital. No doubt I may have questions then Jamie

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@jamiespeirs885 Get well soon!

[@nikkiwillmott5286]

Thank for such a great video, purchased the Brinsea 24 maxi EX yesterday. I am struggling to get it up to temperature, alarm advising Room temperature too low. Will be moving it to another room to see what happens. Would you have any suggestions, if it doesn’t work. Thank you 😊

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Hi Nikki, how low is the temperature falling in the room where you keep it?

[@choir2008]

@@EnglishCountryLife Is 65F too low in a room?

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@choir2008 No that's okay. Just not 50f etc.If you decide to buy one we have a great price on our website www.englishcountrylife.com

[@choir2008]

@@EnglishCountryLife could you pls let me know which website has promotion for this specfic machine? May I assume this machine is fully automatic and with high success rate?

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@choir2008 It is an excellent machine and automatically controls turning, temperature and humidity. With good quality eggs it gives outstanding hatch rates. We offer a great price on this incubator on our own website Ad a kit englishcountrylife.com/product/maxi-24-advance-starter-pack/ Lor just the incubator englishcountrylife.com/product/maxi-24-ex-incubator/ If you buy from us you can always contact us with questions throughout your learning curve and we support you

[@lilyavery8230]

I've got a buff Orpington question outside of the incubator review...I've got one little girl, her siblings passed away and she is housed with 2 ISA Browns, 2 Sapphire gems, and 1 Oliver egger...she's very mild in manner and often I find her just standing around by herself, she does fine with the other girls and they are fine with her...but she almost seems sad. She's around 3.5 months and she seems small, she's more feathers than anything and she's fed well and free ranges. She is so sweet...but wonder if there's something wrong? Any advice? Thanks! Love your channel. :)

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Hi Lily, some birds are natural loners. We had one called Gannet who was never social woth other birds (although she was with us). She ended up as the matriach and raised hundreds of chicks. She's still only half grown. If she has no chicks of her own age to play with she's probably just not annoying the older hens. She may become more animated as she matures

[@lilyavery8230]

@@EnglishCountryLife Thank you for the reply...We call her Buffy and she's just very calm and seems sad or lonely and still very young in comparison to the other girls. They are all nice to her and Buffy holds her own, I just find she's much different than them. We just bought 2 new BO in hopes she will have 2 friends as they grow this spring and summer. I'm rooting for her! Thanks again.

[@aknatureafc2185]

Hi Sir, came across your wonderful account this morning and I subscribed accordingly. I have Mandarin Ducks and three females are sitting on eggs, however I want to hatch some of the eggs in Brinsea incubator[Brinsea Mini II Advance]. Mandarin duck eggs are smaller than chicken eggs, can you kindly suggest the appropriate Tray/Quadrant for Mandarin duck eggs. Thanks

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Hi! the quadrants are for the Maxi incubator rather than the Mini. The mini uses discs. There is a disc available for small eggs on the Mini II advance brinsea.co.uk/accessories-consumables-spare-parts/accessories-spare-parts/small-egg-disk-for-mini-incubators/

[@aknatureafc2185]

@@EnglishCountryLife Thanks for the reply

[@tvano]

If all the 24 hen eggs would hatch - would all the chicks fit in the incubator while waiting for the slower ones to hatch? Or would you recommend to open as little as possible and take out some - e.g. once in 6 hours?

[@EnglishCountryLife]

It would be a tight squeeze but opening the incubator during hatch is best avoided if possible because the humidity drops and the membrane can stick to the chick. I would only open it 24 hour after the first chick hatched

[@tvano]

@@EnglishCountryLife Thank you. So you think the tight squeeze would not prevent the later chicks from being able to open the shell?

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@tvano No I don't think so. They will crash into each other. A lot. But they always do that 😁. Keep an eye on it & move some to your brooder if you get concerned but wait as long as you can.

[@suzimasterson5730]

I have a bigger brinsea. Only bigger because it was a fantastic price. I LOVE it. I have rare breed geese in it atm. Unfortunately our power went out on an very cold night. I’m hopeful not expectant they will survive. The bigger incubator doesn’t have a good visibility. That’s all I can find wrong in year 2 using it

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Is it an Ovation Suzi? If so our review is coming soon 😁

[@suzimasterson5730]

@@EnglishCountryLife it is yes. It’s the advanced one I have. Absolutely amazing incubator. Love the fact you can replace the parts so you don’t have to buy a new incubator.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@suzimasterson5730 Agreed! I prefer the Ovation cradle turning to the discs too

[@suzimasterson5730]

@@EnglishCountryLife I Aubrey the cradles. Currently got Chinese goose eggs and Sebastopol Goose eggs in there. I’m hopeful they will survive. We had a power cut and the feed room was ice cold over night 10 days ago.

[@EnglishCountryLife]

@@suzimasterson5730 Have you candled recently? it should be possible to tell

[@supriyahajarnavis495]

Is Brinsea Incubator also available in India?

[@EnglishCountryLife]

They are indeed brinsea.co.uk/find-a-distributor/

[@donnapemberton8100]

This is the incubator, I have and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to set up, it also took a lot of stress away from me as my first incubator I was up every few hours each night turning the eggs and checking the humidity.. I didn’t leave the house during the day for more than 3 hours. 🫠 I actually got some sleep with this model and my life back 😂 great video as norm.. I’ve recently recommended you to my mum and her husband, they have just got an allotment.. I can’t wait to help them out.. also Hugh I still want that hoodie stop teasing me 😂😂😂

[@EnglishCountryLife]

Thanks Donna - and hello to Donnas Mum 😁