I agree!! This was sooo stressful, lockdown was the worst. Ahhhh

I get out of school an hour early today for Easter, so I'm going over to home depot to find a brooder! Even if I can't get any eggs to hatch, I still have 15 chicks coming in the mail. They ship out today. So now I have them to be nervous about.... Laalaaalaaalaaalaaa.

The Final Countdown!

 

Just increased humidity! 

Good morning all,

 

Is there a checklist of things to do for lock down?

 

This is our first hatch and I've been following the Brinsea instruction book

but there are a few details I'm not sure on:

 

I've been using tissue paper to take up the extra space left by

the eggs we took out that haven't made it. The paper needs to

be removed right? This may leave some eggs on their side. Is that ok?

 

How long after hatching should we leave the chicks in the incubator?

The instructions say we can open once every six hours, but will allowing

the chicks to stay in there that long hurt the unhatched ones?

 

I apologize if some of these questions have been talked about already

but this site runs so slow on my computer that I can't really keep up.

 

Well, tell your very talented helper that was a great idea and she did a fantastic job!

crazy crazy cool did you DRAW those yourself? are they stenciled(still cool) just aweseom either way
 

 

Thank you all for your help w/lockdown timing suggestions and info ... need some more help.

 

I increased humidity and took eggs out of turner late last night.  I followed incubator instructions.  I watched the humidity levels start to increase and then finally went to bed.  Early this morning a chick has pipped/piped  but the humidity has leveled off at 57%.  Throughout the hatch the humidity reading on the hygrometer (following incubator instructions for days 1 - 18) was about 47% most of the time.  

 

Should I quickly add a damp sponge to the incubator?  This is my first hatch and I don't want to hurt the chicks.

 

 

Today is Lockdown!! 

Turn off those turners, candle and pull any quitters, adjust the humidity and get that brooder ready! 

 We havedays until hatch day (unless you're Mahonri......who is hatching early....again...for some reason ). 

 

 

I'd let them rock and roll about all they want. Take out the tissue. The only real checklist to lock down is your final candling (if you want to) to check for any duds or early quitters that could explode in there. Increase humidity- I like 60-65%. When the wee ones hatch leave them in. They will fluff out when dry, gain strength and wont hurt the others even though they play football with the eggs. Once most have hatched or there are no pips in eggs you can quickly grab out the restless dry newbies. Good Luck.

 

All righty, we candled last night and tossed 6 more. From the original 34, 24 made it to lock down. Of the 14 shipped eggs 7 made it and some of those look a bit behind in development. We'll see. It's my blight on shipped eggs, definitely last time. We are hopping to get at least a blue Blue Rock boy out of them, if that happens then we are in great shape. Heck a splash would be great.

 

Made a Big Blocks divider (kids leggo) for the incubator to partition off the pure Plymouth Rocks, laid down paper towels, took eggs out of cartons to lay flat and have two tumblers of water in (each side of divider to hold in place) to see what the humidity will settle at. I'm 5 hours early on lock down but this is to have time to adjust humidity before it's hands off and fingers crossed.

 

Edited by Egghead_Jr - 4/4/12 at 4:56am

try NOT to open it! especially with the pip! The humity will rise some as that baby pips....and other do also...add water with a straw and syringe of you have one,through the access holes in the top of the bator,if not just wait it will rise most likely enough to be right on the money here soon~ GOOD LUCK!!