Brinsea Ovation 56 EX 56 Egg Incubator - GB Made, Fully Automatic Turning & Integral Automatic Humidity Control Incubator - 3 Year Guarantee.

The media could not be loaded. We have successfully hatched out 4 batches of chickens and bantams since I was given the incubator as a Christmas present last year.The hatching rate was about 80% but that was due to some infertile eggs. The computer running the critical humidity and temperature control is so easy to program and use that you are guaranteed many successful hatchlings.Next spring I have lined up some peacock and Guinea fowl eggs for hatching and I am really looking forward to that one !

Brinsea is a trusted company and I’d use them every time. Great product, reliable and easy to clean.Make sure you turn the turning mechanism off before the chicks hatch. I left it on a bit late and the cradle movement squashed and killed three chicks. I’d never had that with the old Octagon incubators and so wasn’t expecting it.

I am very pleased with this machine. I’ve already had one really successful hatch from it – 25 out of 28 eggs hatched and it’s full with eggs again. It’s got a lot more digital compared to my Octagon 20 Eco. You still have the same idea for creating the humidity with the two water reservoirs which has always been easy to do. I could have gone for the next model up with the humidity reading but I’ve never needed it on my old machine so decided to stick with same version and it’s cheaper. This new one doesn’t need the cradle for turning because the turning is built into it and you can now decide how often you want to turn the eggs …my Octagon turns the eggs every hour so I’ve basically kept to the same timing. I definitely need my glasses to see the thermometer on my old machine so I think the digital temperature read out is an improvement. The digital menu is quite easy to use ….I did have to check the instructions but they were pretty easy to follow and quite helpful.It’s got 4 egg carriers inside and you can lift each of these out independently. You do need to take the top off properly before removing or replacing the carriers and you do need to replace them carefully and line up the slots for the egg carriers to make sure they are positioned properly (First time I candled I tried it by lifting one side of the lid and putting egg carriers back in with one hand, but I found I didn’t get my carriers to sit properly and if I hadn’t noticed, they probably wouldn’t have turned properly)The old Octagon Eco didn’t have any temperature alarms but this one does (touch wood I’ve not had any alarms go off yet!). The visibility of the eggs and chicks is really good. You do get fluff collecting between the outer and inner lid. When I asked Brinsea how to clean it they were really helpful and sent me a link to instructions on their website.In summary, make sure you put the carriers in carefully if you take them out for candling eggs. Overall, so far, I think it’s excellent….and it’s made in the UK!!

Not recommend, we have been successfully hatching chicks with our brinsea octagon for years, this year we wanted to hatch more so bought this one, it’s just awful and has been unsuccessful on two occasions, out of all our eggs which were all fertile only 4 on first run and 3 on 2nd made it, all the rest died in the eggs, some started to get out but died trying.Absolute garbage we won’t be using again and £300 wasted.

Be very careful when purchasing Brinsea Incubators via Amazon. - I purchased a unit from Amazon and sent it back to the Brinsea under warranty when it developed a fault. - It turned out from the serial number that the unit Amazon had sold me as new was at least a year old, someone had taken the unit to pieces in the past and the fault was caused either because the unit had been stored in a damp location, or someone had used corrosive cleaning materials around the sensors prior to it being sold as new. Brinsea staff were helpful, and Amazon has given me a full refund, but I have still lost the eggs which would have been hatched in the time its taken to get the fault diagnosed, arrange for a refund and purchase a replacement unit (from one of Brinseas approved distributors). However, I feel its important to ensure that other potential buyers know about this problem. The way Amazon describe the product suggests that they are buying in stock from the Manufacturers and are a distributor, this isn't true and it isn't clear where they are getting their stock from.

Expensive and didn't find it took larger eggs very well.

Can not fault this incubator, its reliable , good quality and very easy to use, I have 100% hatch rate with my own chicken eggs using this incubator, love it

Excellent machine . I bought my Ovation 28 Advance back in March. I have now used it three times. I’ve just finished my third hatch. I only put in 12 eggs each time and it takes 28 eggs but I got 9 , 10 and then 11 gorgeous chicks and there were a couple of infertile eggs which were never going to hatch. Friends advised me to steer clear of the cheap Chinese incubators and to buy a Brinsea because it is British and because they said if I had a problem, Brinsea has a 3 year warranty and they are really good on service. As it turned out I’m glad I registered the machine for the warranty because the fan started making a noise on the second hatch. So I rang Brinsea and they advised me to get the fan replaced and they sent out a fan free of charge under warranty. It took me about 20 mins following their instructions and the problem was sorted. I can’t fault them on service. The reason I chose the 28 Advance was because it had the humidity display. When you follow Brinsea’s instructions the humidity reads high but so far I’ve just stuck with their instructions and its worked really well. Having replaced the fan I also realise it is quite easy to clean. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Ovation 28 Advance.