The Saga Begins

[knowvagale]

@ChickenCanoe thanks for the advice!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

what does x2 mean?

That is an affirmation that the person agrees, it means the last statement, times two.

 

[knowvagale]

One more question--lockdown is supposed to be the last 3 days of incubation, right? Does that mean I should start it at the beginning or end of day 18, or should the last time I turn the eggs be tonight? (day 17)

 

[mbleily]

Following this to see the results.

 

[knowvagale]

I'm so nervous! My whole family is invested now--I just candled for the last time, didn't see any movement but he's filling up most of the egg, and the air cell is pretty big, so fingers crossed everything will go smoothly!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

One more question--lockdown is supposed to be the last 3 days of incubation, right? Does that mean I should start it at the beginning or end of day 18, or should the last time I turn the eggs be tonight? (day 17)

It isn't that critical. Turning is most important in the first two weeks. As much as people here define lockdown precisely, you can lockdown anywhere from day 15-19 or later. As long as they haven't pipped, you can open up if necessary. Turning after the first couple weeks won't help much.

 

[knowvagale]

It isn't that critical. Turning is most important in the first two weeks. As much as people here define lockdown precisely, you can lockdown anywhere from day 15-19 or later. As long as they haven't pipped, you can open up if necessary. Turning after the first couple weeks won't help much.

Thanks! I'll close the incubator up tomorrow then.

 

[knowvagale]

My one lonely chicken egg is in lockdown, and I would like to try again if he doesn't make it to hatch, or get him some friends if he does. I want to actually be prepared next time, with an actual incubator instead of my current frankenstein monstrosity. I don't have a huge budget for this, probably looking for something less than 50 dollars. Are there any relatively reliable incubators around that price range? I don't need anything super fancy, I can turn the eggs manually, and I figure just about anything is better than an ice chest. I'd love to hear your thoughts/suggestions!

 

[knowvagale]

Day 20! I'm so nervous! I'll make sure to update you guys if anything happens. Hopefully I'll have a little fluff by tomorrow night. Temperature has been a little weird the past few days, so I'm really nervous that something will go wrong. Ugh, the suspense is killing me! I'll probably be bothering ya'll with constant updates all day. I'm gonna be hovering on around the incubator chirping like a crazy person until something happens

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If your temps have been weird throughout and the embryo survived, it will likely be OK now. At the end, embryos can handle wide temperature swings more than through the rest of incubation.
https://www.brinsea.com/Articles/Advice/PowerOff.aspx
Try to sit on your hands unless you need to adjust temperature and increase humidity.