I've been hatching eggs for many, many years. From quails to geese. Every single spring. I'm new on here and I read a lot of posts of people using lockdown days prior to hatching. I never even heard of lockdown till I hopped onto this site. I only raise the humidity when I see my first external pip. I've had great success with high hatch rates, especially this season. When you think about it, the hen gets off the nest to eat and drink everyday. She isn't keeping that much humidity under her till that first chick hatches. I don't usually use my hydrometers either. When I do though, the majority of incubation is only at 30%. When I see my first pip, I raise it to about 60%. But I don't necessarily put them in lockdown either. Sometimes I do open the incubator and the humidity climbs right back up. Maybe it's just my incubators doing their job well? But they hatch just fine. I'm just afraid everyone is getting too technical and making themselves worry too much! Sometimes when I find myself getting a little careless of my clutch in the incubator, it's some of my best hatch rates LOL. Anybody else not abide the usual lockdown rules? Or am I the only nut here
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