I can take up to 24 hours to start producing bubbles. Until the ladder gets some gunk built up the bubbles will stick. So both of these things are normal. If Ii remember correctly there is no way to control the bubble count. So the amount of bubbles you get is dependent on the mixture packets. You should however be getting more then a few an hour. It could be that it's only been 12 hours. Give it another day & see what happens.