I would have to agree.
No, lock them down early. If they're turned any longer than the 18 days, it's going to screw up your hatch.
Yes I didn't think of that, Why cant you check on the eggs while the school is closed?
x2 omg yesssTurning is important early in incubation, it affects several things. But after 14 days chicken eggs really don't have to be turned. Those things are all taken care of by 14 days. It doesn't hurt to turn them after 14 days but you don't have to. As far as the turning part of lockdown Thursday or Tuesday won't matter.
The other part of lockdown is humidity. The eggs need to lose a certain amount of moisture during incubation to hatch properly. There is a fairly wide window between too little or too much but you need to be within that window. How fast they lose moisture will depend on a lot of different things, not just the humidity during incubation. There is no easy answer as to when your eggs will be in that window, will have lost enough moisture but not too much.
The reason we increase humidity during lockdown is that the membrane surrounding a chick can shrink around the chick and keep it from hatching if it dries out. So we want to raise the humidity before they external pip. You said you set them 14 days ago which would be Wednesday March 17. So a regular hatch day would be Wednesday April 7 and lockdown would be Sunday April 4. You also said yours typically hatch a day or two late which would be Wednesday or Thursday. I'm a little confused on that because a normal hatch date of Wednesday is not a day late.
My thoughts on turning is to stop on Thursday. They don't need it. On raising the humidity, how comfortable are you that they will not have pipped before you get back on Tuesday since you know the history of your incubator? That is what would drive my decision as to when to adjust the humidity up.
And I'll say the obvious. Next year look a the school calendar before you set the eggs.
I can get in the school but I have the opportunity to go out of town and see my parents for the first time in 9 months since they were able to be vaccinated for COVID and will be past the two week point.
Thank you, you confirmed what I thought. I incubate dry but have a humidifier going in the room and have not had issue with shrink wrapping since I started doing that.Turning is important early in incubation, it affects several things. But after 14 days chicken eggs really don't have to be turned. Those things are all taken care of by 14 days. It doesn't hurt to turn them after 14 days but you don't have to. As far as the turning part of lockdown Thursday or Tuesday won't matter.
The other part of lockdown is humidity. The eggs need to lose a certain amount of moisture during incubation to hatch properly. There is a fairly wide window between too little or too much but you need to be within that window. How fast they lose moisture will depend on a lot of different things, not just the humidity during incubation. There is no easy answer as to when your eggs will be in that window, will have lost enough moisture but not too much.
The reason we increase humidity during lockdown is that the membrane surrounding a chick can shrink around the chick and keep it from hatching if it dries out. So we want to raise the humidity before they external pip. You said you set them 14 days ago which would be Wednesday March 17. So a regular hatch day would be Wednesday April 7 and lockdown would be Sunday April 4. You also said yours typically hatch a day or two late which would be Wednesday or Thursday. I'm a little confused on that because a normal hatch date of Wednesday is not a day late.
My thoughts on turning is to stop on Thursday. They don't need it. On raising the humidity, how comfortable are you that they will not have pipped before you get back on Tuesday since you know the history of your incubator? That is what would drive my decision as to when to adjust the humidity up.
And I'll say the obvious. Next year look a the school calendar before you set the eggs.
The way I think of it is that an egg does not have 24 hours of development when you put it in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for an egg to have a day's worth of development. So you say "one" the day after you set the eggs. An easy way to check is the eggs should hatch on the day of the week you set them. You set them on Wednesday, the 21 days are up on a Wednesday. Lockdown should be after 18 days of development, so a Sunday.
