Bantam Lockdown Day

[Candice Jones]

So we are hatching our first bantam eggs, Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshires. The breeder we got our eggs from only lets his broody mamas hatch his eggs and doesn’t really count down days to hatch with them. I’m trying to decide if I should look down on day 17 like some bantam breeders say to do or wait. My only concern is the turning of the eggs. How can you tell if your bantams will hatch on the standard 21st day or early? Candling? What should I look for?

 

[Ridgerunner]

As far as I'm concerned you cannot tell the day they will hatch, whether bantam or regular. There are a lot of different reasons eggs can hatch early or late, whether bantam or regular sized. The most-quoted reason is the average incubating temperature, if it is a bit warm they can be early, cool and they can be late. But other things can affect it. Don't get too set on that 21 day thing or that bantam eggs will hatch early because they are small. Mother Nature is not that precise.

But your question involves turning. There are two man reasons the eggs need to be turned early in incubation. Turning helps prevent the yolk or developing chick from touching the inside of the porous egg shell where it can get stuck and die. Turning also helps body parts form in the right place. By two weeks all body parts have formed and a membrane has formed around the embryo so it is protected from touching. You can stop turning after 14 days, it's not a problem.

The other part of lockdown is raising the humidity so that protective membrane that forms around the embryo doesn't dry out and shrink around it. Typically we do that after 18 days of incubation. That's mainly because eggs can hatch early, bantam or regular, and we want to have the humidity up before they external pip to keep that membrane form drying out if they happen to be early. Again, Mother Nature as quite nice to us. She left a fairly wide window of moisture loss that can work. This is not to say that moisture loss is not important, it is, but the odds of you being OK with the moisture loss is really good if you are within a day of the "18 days". Many people count the days wrong and start lockdown a full day early and usually still do OK. But this is the area of greater importance, not turning.

If I were in your situation I'd stick to the 18 days traditionally used unless I heard the unhatched chicks chirping in the shell, saw them wiggling like they re getting into position to hatch, or if I saw an actual pip. If you go into lockdown 12 or 24 hours early I still would not expect a disaster. You do have some leeway.

Good luck!

 

[Candice Jones]

As far as I'm concerned you cannot tell the day they will hatch, whether bantam or regular. There are a lot of different reasons eggs can hatch early or late, whether bantam or regular sized. The most-quoted reason is the average incubating temperature, if it is a bit warm they can be early, cool and they can be late. But other things can affect it. Don't get too set on that 21 day thing or that bantam eggs will hatch early because they are small. Mother Nature is not that precise.

But your question involves turning. There are two man reasons the eggs need to be turned early in incubation. Turning helps prevent the yolk or developing chick from touching the inside of the porous egg shell where it can get stuck and die. Turning also helps body parts form in the right place. By two weeks all body parts have formed and a membrane has formed around the embryo so it is protected from touching. You can stop turning after 14 days, it's not a problem.

The other part of lockdown is raising the humidity so that protective membrane that forms around the embryo doesn't dry out and shrink around it. Typically we do that after 18 days of incubation. That's mainly because eggs can hatch early, bantam or regular, and we want to have the humidity up before they external pip to keep that membrane form drying out if they happen to be early. Again, Mother Nature as quite nice to us. She left a fairly wide window of moisture loss that can work. This is not to say that moisture loss is not important, it is, but the odds of you being OK with the moisture loss is really good if you are within a day of the "18 days". Many people count the days wrong and start lockdown a full day early and usually still do OK. But this is the area of greater importance, not turning.

If I were in your situation I'd stick to the 18 days traditionally used unless I heard the unhatched chicks chirping in the shell, saw them wiggling like they re getting into position to hatch, or if I saw an actual pip. If you go into lockdown 12 or 24 hours early I still would not expect a disaster. You do have some leeway.

Good luck!

Thank you Ridgerunner. That was all great info. I knew I'd have to raise the humidity a little. I've been running around 45-55% and was going to try and jump to 60-65%. So I'll pull the turner out at day 18 and do that. I'll also keep my eyes and ears out for the pipping. In any case the air cell is looking really good (we marked it on day 7&14) so I'm pretty sure we've got a good start.

 

[bobshere]

I can say the most important part is try not to open the incubator. You could have pipped eggs that you are unable to see. If you let the humidity out they will shrink wrap on you. If you need to open the incubator to add water try and do that before day 20 and then hope it lasts the duration.