April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[CluckNDoodle]

Such cute babies popping out everywhere!

I am tempted to candle today to see where my air cells are, but don't know if I should or not. I'm on Day 7. I've been reading all night about incubation and it seems like most people candle at day 7, but I just did at day 5 and dont' want to disturbe the eggs. I think one of the olive eggers has a porous shell.

Also I was wondering what you all keep your humidity at until lockdown? And then at lockdown what do you put it at? Mine has been staying between 22%-43%. Kind of a large ratio... ugh. Also is it Day 18 that is the lockdown or Day 19? I keep hearing two different things on that.

Good morning! I'm not sure if this question was already answered. I wasn't on much over the past couple of days.

To better explain "lockdown", normally people are referring to lockdown as both taking the eggs out of the automatic turner (or stop hand turning) and increasing humidity for hatch. I personally usually stop turning in the evening on day 17 (which is almost your typical day 18 lockdown but I like to candle at night when it's really dark). You will hear that some people stop turning as early as day 14, this is because any day after day 13 the chick is then large enough to move on it's own in the egg and no longer "requires" turning. Since it's not set in stone that your temps were on point I like to wait until day 17. This gives the chick plenty of time to get into position for hatch but I often wait until day 19 to increase humidity to about 60% for hatch. If the humidity hasn't increased to 65% once I see external pips I add a bit more water because 65% has proven to be the sweet spot for hatching in most of my incubators.
I hope that helps to explain lockdown a little better!

What incubator are you using? That will help to determine what humidity is best for you during the first 18 days. In my personal experience, where my incubators are located styrofoam does better running dryer or in my case about 10% lower than my plastic incubators at all times. My plastic incubators I run anywhere from 35%-55% for the first 18 days, most of the time right at 45%. I adjust this up or down based on the air cell growth. If you're not weighing your eggs I would recommend you also monitor the air cell growth so you can adjust the humidity accordingly and find what works best for you in your incubator. Good luck!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I keep my humidity between 35-40% of I can. Keep in mind humidity is only a tool to affect weight loss in the eggs. You can gauge this by checking aircells or weighing eggs.

As for lockdown. To answer your question you must understand why people lockdown. It's to allow the chicks time to get into position for hatch. And increase humidity so that when they pip externally they won't dry out between pip-zip. There is no set day. The reason day 18-19 gets thrown out is to make sure the humidity is correct for any early hatchers you might have. I've seen posters "lock down" from days 15-20. If this is your first hatch day 18 is a good starting point.

So after I typed all of that I see UThobby did a great job explaining this. Lol!! I guess I should read before I start chattering away.

 

[Luckyleaf]

Well at this point I've made so many newbie mistakes I will be shocked if even one of my eggs hatch.

1.) I didn't calibrate my incubator after I took it out of the box & started using it.
2.) I forgot to wash my hands when candling the eggs around day 10.
3.) I made the mistake of moving mamma and her clutch inside because it was going to get very hot outside and didn't look like a safe spot for babies. Mama immediately abandons her eggs.

I put the abandoned clutch in with the incubator eggs even though they went pretty cold. I'm praying for at least one egg to make it through!!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Well at this point I've made so many newbie mistakes I will be shocked if even one of my eggs hatch.

1.) I didn't calibrate my incubator after I took it out of the box & started using it.
2.) I forgot to wash my hands when candling the eggs around day 10.
3.) I made the mistake of moving mamma and her clutch inside because it was going to get very hot outside and didn't look like a safe spot for babies. Mama immediately abandons her eggs.

I put the abandoned clutch in with the incubator eggs even though they went pretty cold. I'm praying for at least one egg to make it through!!

I bet they will surprise you! As long as you were fortunate enough to have an incubator that was at least close to the correct temps then the rest would only cause occasional issues. The eggs can actually cool for quite some time before they lose liability. Fingers crossed!

 

[Fatimetta]

Good morning! I'm not sure if this question was already answered. I wasn't on much over the past couple of days.

To better explain "lockdown", normally people are referring to lockdown as both taking the eggs out of the automatic turner (or stop hand turning) and increasing humidity for hatch. I personally usually stop turning in the evening on day 17 (which is almost your typical day 18 lockdown but I like to candle at night when it's really dark). You will hear that some people stop turning as early as day 14, this is because any day after day 13 the chick is then large enough to move on it's own in the egg and no longer "requires" turning. Since it's not set in stone that your temps were on point I like to wait until day 17. This gives the chick plenty of time to get into position for hatch but I often wait until day 19 to increase humidity to about 60% for hatch. If the humidity hasn't increased to 65% once I see external pips I add a bit more water because 65% has proven to be the sweet spot for hatching in most of my incubators.
I hope that helps to explain lockdown a little better!

What incubator are you using? That will help to determine what humidity is best for you during the first 18 days. In my personal experience, where my incubators are located styrofoam does better running dryer or in my case about 10% lower than my plastic incubators at all times. My plastic incubators I run anywhere from 35%-55% for the first 18 days, most of the time right at 45%. I adjust this up or down based on the air cell growth. If you're not weighing your eggs I would recommend you also monitor the air cell growth so you can adjust the humidity accordingly and find what works best for you in your incubator. Good luck!

Thank you! This is great information! I'm using a Brinsea Mini Advance so its plastic. I've been trying to really monitor the humidity and keep it between 35%-45%. I'm going on Day 9 today and want to candle to check the air cells. Do you think I should today or wait until tomorrow like I was going to?

 

[CindyinSD]

Thank you! This is great information! I'm using a Brinsea Mini Advance so its plastic. I've been trying to really monitor the humidity and keep it between 35%-45%. I'm going on Day 9 today and want to candle to check the air cells. Do you think I should today or wait until tomorrow like I was going to?

IMO, candle away. (full disclosure... I candle every night when I rotate my eggs around the bator--since there are varying temperatures in different spots, even in forced air bators)

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Thank you! This is great information! I'm using a Brinsea Mini Advance so its plastic. I've been trying to really monitor the humidity and keep it between 35%-45%. I'm going on Day 9 today and want to candle to check the air cells. Do you think I should today or wait until tomorrow like I was going to?

You're welcome! 35-45% was a good range for the Brinsea Mini II Advance I used.
Whatever you're comfortable with as far as candling! I personally candle more often than most just because as many times as I've hatched chicks it just never gets old for me. Just wash your hand thoroughly before candling and you're good to go.

 

[casportpony]

Be sure to check out this contest!
11th Annual EHAL—Contest #8: Hatching Chick Photography Contest
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[abpatchy]

Hi everbody!
Today was quite a day. I was separating the hen chicks from the rooster chicks.. when I thought I heard knocking. It ended up being 3 chicks that were caught between the manual outside door and the automatic outside door. There is about 10 inches space between the two. I don't know how they ended up in there ... if I closed the automatic door and they were being trapped ... I just don't know. Anyways.. there was blood. But I couldn't see anything.. they all seemed fine. As I was getting ready to leave I saw the one little chick limping. I caught her and I noticed her food had some blood and there was some damage. We took her home and checked on her... her toe was just hanging by thread. We had to amputate it...it wasn't just the toe.. it was like her whole "finger". Poor little thing. We cleaned it up and she was so brave! tried a bandage but she pulled it off. She was being all snuggles and didn't want to be alone. We took her back to the coop since she didn't want to be alone. And since she was walking and eating and drinking we thought it would be ok. I'll keep an eye on her... since she is missing a whole toe, I can definitly pick her out. It was not a fun thing to do.. but I did enjoy her snuggles.
On the brighter side... I have at least 2 hatches! More are zipping!

 

[clinfitt]

My mixed pullet went broody Monday and she’s going to hatch some interesting mixes. The big rooster is the dad and a silver sebright and an EE and the silver sebright daughter are the moms. I wonder what I’m going to get from a bantam hen and a giant rooster. I candled the eggs and they are all good.

I have a barred rock rooster and some bantam cochins and I got a bantom barred rock colored chick. Freaking cute haha.

Also here are my babies born this weekend. I could just eat them up they are so cute.