Questions about hatching chickens

[coleson12]

Hi, I have hatched chickens in the past but it has been over a year ago and I want to make sure to get a couple things right.

1) Is the day you put the eggs in the incubator considered day 1? Or is the first full day they are in the incubator day 1?

2) Do you let the eggs turn on day 18? Or do you stop the turning on the morning of day 18? I have also heard some people "lockdown" on day 19, which is best?

3) How many times a day do you turn the eggs?

Thanks for any help in advance! Also I am looking into the Brinsea Mini Incubators. Does anyone have one? If so is it the Mini Eco or Mini Advance? Does it work good? Thanks!

 

[Pork Pie]

1) Is the day you put the eggs in the incubator considered day 1? Or is the first full day they are in the incubator day 1? The day you put them in is "day zero"

2) Do you let the eggs turn on day 18? Or do you stop the turning on the morning of day 18? I have also heard some people "lockdown" on day 19, which is best? I'm no expert, but 18 seems to be the most common - some people also use different humidity regimes, which may be an influencing factor.

3) How many times a day do you turn the eggs? Brinsea, for example, suggest at least 3 times per day, but more would certainly do no harm.

I do not have a mini, but I do have a Brinsea. I think that they are considered among one of the better incubator companies (but a little on the costly side). Brinsea have recently launched a new set of incubators out - check their website, which could see the costs of the existing models coming down a bit (we can but dream

). I guess the Advance just makes life easier, and you can add a water pump (should you feel the need) to control the humidity at a later date.

 

[coleson12]

Thank you so much this really helped