May Hatch-a-Long!

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OzarkCountryGirl said:
Welcome to the madness!
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Lock down begins the final three days before the eggs are due to hatch (usually Day 18 for chickens). You up the humidity, lower the temp just a wee bit, and then pretend the incubator is locked down so that you can't get into it. In other words, you don't open it until after the eggs have hatched. If you are using a separate brooder to hatch the eggs out, then you move them to the brooder on Day 18. Again, once the eggs are in there with the raised humidity, you don't open it until the eggs hatch. Because every time you open it, you let the humidity drop and you run the risk of shrink wrapping the membrane around the chicks inside their eggs, and they won't be able to hatch and so will die fully formed inside their shells.

You can safely candle the eggs daily up until lock down. It doesn't hurt the egg to be out of the incubator for that little bit. Even setting hens usually get up once each day or so in order to void, grab a drink, and a quick bite to eat. And by candling them daily, you quickly learn how developing chicks should look by each incubation day. However there are occasionally some late bloomers, like the one I just had hatch tonight. After the others had all hatched, I candled the unhatched egg and could still see the chick moving around inside, but also noticed that it hadn't made its internal pip yet so I just let it remain in the incubator until it was ready.
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Thanks for the welcome and the great information! We probably caused some of the unhatched ones we had last time. We opened the incubator twice to get chicks out. We also brought in two bantam eggs from under the hen because once two had hatched she quit setting. We hatched out two more inside and gave them back to her. So we probably had that incubator open about 4 times during the hatching time. I know better now -- THANKS again!

I'm in the Southwest Missouri Ozark foothills - which state are you in?
 
Three of my five SL Polish have hatched! One of the Tolbunts hatched, but it has terrible wry neck. Hubby is on his way to the pharmacy right now with his list.
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mrchicks said:
Three of my five SL Polish have hatched! One of the Tolbunts hatched, but it has terrible wry neck. Hubby is on his way to the pharmacy right now with his list.
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Are you sure it's wry neck? Let it dry up and start walking. If is still acting like it is, then treat it. Poly V. Very little...and.. Not too much electrolytes.
 
Yes, it's dry. It hatched at around 2 this afternoon. It's head is mostly on it's back, it walks backwards then falls over on it's back. I'm hoping the Poly V helps. Poor little cutie.
 
mrchicks said:
Yes, it's dry. It hatched at around 2 this afternoon. It's head is mostly on it's back, it walks backwards then falls over on it's back. I'm hoping the Poly V helps. Poor little cutie.
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Oh dear, good luck! It may make a big healthy turn around.
 
Thank you. I'm hoping for the best over here, and that the others are healthy when they finally arrive. I'm praying over pips today.
 

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