You are getting some real good advice from the others. Something that helps me count the days is that an egg does not have 24 hours’ worth of development 2 seconds or 2 hours after you put it in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for it to have a day’s worth of development. So when you see “days” think of it as “days of development”.
There is a lot about incubation that does not have to be extremely precise. You should try to get it as close as you can but disaster does not always follow if you are off a bit. Lockdown is one of those. There is a lot going on inside the egg the last three days. A chick can do most of those whether the egg is turning or not, but it helps with some if the egg is not regularly turned. There are stories on here of people forgetting to stop the turner and many chicks hatching anyway. It’s best to stop the turning before hatch but not necessarily fatal if you don’t. It just improves your odds of a good hatch.
I also like to get the automatic turner out of there before hatch. It makes clean-up a lot easier and it removes possible places a chick might get its leg or wing caught while it is crawling around. It’s not that a chick is guaranteed to hurt itself if you leave the turner in, just that it can possibly happen. I consider removing the turner a reasonable precaution, plus it does make clean-up easier.
If the average incubating temperature is a bit warm, the eggs can hatch two or even three days early. I’ve had eggs pipping when I went into lockdown and those chicks hatched. If the average incubating temperature is a bit cool they can be that much late. There are other things that can influence when an egg hatches too, heredity, humidity, how and how long they are stored before you start incubation, the size of the egg, but the big one is normally incubating temperature.
During lockdown you raise the humidity. It’s possible if the humidity is too low that the membrane inside the egg can shrink around the chick and keep it from hatching if it dries out. If the egg has not pipped, this is really not likely to happen if you open the incubator. This does not happen each and every time you open the incubator even if a chick has pipped. Lots of people do it and don’t suffer disasters. But it is possible that it can happen, so it is good practice to not open the incubator during lockdown, especially if an egg has pipped. Sometimes they pip on the bottom where you can’t see them.
As I said above, I’ve had eggs pipping when I went into lockdown. Those eggs did not get shrink wrapped. It’s something that can happen, not something that will absolutely happen each and every time. I’ve also shrink wrapped a chick when I opened the incubator during hatch. It can happen, but most that had pipped were not shrink wrapped.
I think a big part of it is to try to go into lockdown before any eggs pip. If you are a full day early or a day or more late, as long as they have not pipped it probably won’t have a big effect on your hatch. But I think it is a good practice to try to get it right.
There is a lot about incubation that does not have to be extremely precise. You should try to get it as close as you can but disaster does not always follow if you are off a bit. Lockdown is one of those. There is a lot going on inside the egg the last three days. A chick can do most of those whether the egg is turning or not, but it helps with some if the egg is not regularly turned. There are stories on here of people forgetting to stop the turner and many chicks hatching anyway. It’s best to stop the turning before hatch but not necessarily fatal if you don’t. It just improves your odds of a good hatch.
I also like to get the automatic turner out of there before hatch. It makes clean-up a lot easier and it removes possible places a chick might get its leg or wing caught while it is crawling around. It’s not that a chick is guaranteed to hurt itself if you leave the turner in, just that it can possibly happen. I consider removing the turner a reasonable precaution, plus it does make clean-up easier.
If the average incubating temperature is a bit warm, the eggs can hatch two or even three days early. I’ve had eggs pipping when I went into lockdown and those chicks hatched. If the average incubating temperature is a bit cool they can be that much late. There are other things that can influence when an egg hatches too, heredity, humidity, how and how long they are stored before you start incubation, the size of the egg, but the big one is normally incubating temperature.
During lockdown you raise the humidity. It’s possible if the humidity is too low that the membrane inside the egg can shrink around the chick and keep it from hatching if it dries out. If the egg has not pipped, this is really not likely to happen if you open the incubator. This does not happen each and every time you open the incubator even if a chick has pipped. Lots of people do it and don’t suffer disasters. But it is possible that it can happen, so it is good practice to not open the incubator during lockdown, especially if an egg has pipped. Sometimes they pip on the bottom where you can’t see them.
As I said above, I’ve had eggs pipping when I went into lockdown. Those eggs did not get shrink wrapped. It’s something that can happen, not something that will absolutely happen each and every time. I’ve also shrink wrapped a chick when I opened the incubator during hatch. It can happen, but most that had pipped were not shrink wrapped.
I think a big part of it is to try to go into lockdown before any eggs pip. If you are a full day early or a day or more late, as long as they have not pipped it probably won’t have a big effect on your hatch. But I think it is a good practice to try to get it right.
