Confusion about "LOCKDOWN"

[Ridgerunner]

First, let’s count days using your second batch, the ones you started on the Thursday the 23rd. Eggs don’t have a full day’s worth of development 2 seconds or 2 hours after they are put in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for them to have a full day’s worth of development. An easy way to check your counting is the day of the week you start them is the theoretical day of the week they should hatch. Since you set the second batch on a Thursday, they should hatch on a Thursday.

So since you set them on the 23rd, they would have seven days of development on Thursday the 30th. They would have 14 days of development on Thursday, February 6th. They will have 18 days of development on the 10th and that is when they should go into lockdown. Theoretical hatch date is Thursday, the 13th.

I have no idea what is going in with your first two. You heated them for 2 days, held them at some temperature for 5 days, then started them again. Shows you how tough they can be doesn’t it? I don’t know how much they may have developed in those 5 days. They may be only 2 days ahead of the others but they may be more. I really don’t know.

Turning early in incubation is important. It helps keep the yolk or developing chick from sticking to the eggshell. If it does that, it will die. Turning helps a membrane develop that keeps a chick from sticking to the eggshell. That’s a good thing because the chick gets big enough it will touch the side. Another thing turning does is it helps body parts form in the right location. A chick doesn’t need both eyes forming on the same side of its head or even inside the skull. The liver and kidneys need to be in the right place so the plumbing works. If the body parts don’t form in the right place, the chick dies.

By day 14, the membrane has formed so the chick cannot stick to the eggshell. The body parts have formed. You really don’t need to turn the eggs after 14 days. It doesn’t hurt them, but it doesn’t help them either. So after your second batch passes 14 days, maybe on the 7th, stop turning them. It’s that simple.

You’ll see a lot of different humidities bandied around on here. Part of that is that there is a fairly wide band of humidities that work. You don’t have to hit it dead on exact. As long as you are reasonably close, it will work.

Egghead’s drawing is good. The purpose of controlling the humidity during incubation is to increase the air pocket so the chick can internally pip. You’ll find that the same humidities work differently for us, even in the same make and model. If you move the incubator to the other side of the room, it can work differently. I don’t know what causes all these differences. Some of it is manufacturing tolerances. Some of it is the temperature and humidity of the air going onto the incubator. I’m sure there are other causes. What it boils down to is that there is some trial and error involved in determining the right conditions for you with your unique incubator and unique conditions. My suggestion is to try to be as consistent as you can and analyze your hatch. If you are consistent, you may have a better idea of how you may need to tweak your settings.

The reason I called the hatch date theoretical is that it can vary, sometimes quite a bit. There are several different reasons for that. Heredity, humidity, how and how long they are stored (this certainly applies to your two early eggs), or just basic differences in the eggs. For example, some eggs have thicker whites while others have whites that are more watery. That can affect how soon they hatch. The big factor is average incubating temperature. If the average incubation temperature is a little warm they can be early. If it is cool they can be late. I’m talking days with this, not just hours. When I first got my incubator, it was running warm. I had eggs pipping when I went into lockdown, so I tweaked the temperature down a full degree for later hatches. Those early chicks still hatched, by the way. I’ve had chicks hatch 2 full days early, both under a broody and in an incubator set properly. Others have reported hatches a few days late, even under a broody. People like to think temperature is the only variable in when they hatch, but in reality there are several.

Now about opening the incubator during hatch. There are thing s that might happen and things that absolutely will happen each and every time. It’s possible a piece of space junk could fall out of the sky and hit your house today, possible but not likely. It’s possible you could have a fender-bender next time you are in a car, possible and more likely than the space junk, but still not very likely.

It is possible that if you open the incubator when an egg has pipped, the chick in that egg will get shrink-wrapped. I did it once so I know it is possible. The humidity drops enough that the membrane actually dries out and shrinks around the chick. This can also be a sign that your humidity was too low during incubation. If the egg has not pipped, it will not happen. With mine, even if the egg has pipped it hardly ever happens. It’s just something that can possibly happen.

Some people go to the lengths of taking the incubator into the bathroom, turn on the shower, and get it all steamy before they open the incubator. I think that is overkill but some people are more cautious than me. You are likely to be faced with this with those first two chicks. They can go three days after hatch without food or water because they have absorbed the yolk but there is nothing wrong with getting them out earlier. It’s not that they can’t eat or drink, just that they don’t need to. If you see a window of opportunity to get those first two out, grab them. You might have a bottle of warm water handy to mist the other eggs when you do to keep the humidity up. It won’t hurt anything and it might help.

I hate staggered hatches and I really don’t know what is going to happen with your first two, but I really don’t think you are in a lot of trouble. Good luck!

 

[Nitin Kumar]

First, let’s count days using your second batch, the ones you started on the Thursday the 23rd. Eggs don’t have a full day’s worth of development 2 seconds or 2 hours after they are put in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for them to have a full day’s worth of development. An easy way to check your counting is the day of the week you start them is the theoretical day of the week they should hatch. Since you set the second batch on a Thursday, they should hatch on a Thursday.

So since you set them on the 23rd, they would have seven days of development on Thursday the 30th. They would have 14 days of development on Thursday, February 6th. They will have 18 days of development on the 10th and that is when they should go into lockdown. Theoretical hatch date is Thursday, the 13th.

I have no idea what is going in with your first two. You heated them for 2 days, held them at some temperature for 5 days, then started them again. Shows you how tough they can be doesn’t it? I don’t know how much they may have developed in those 5 days. They may be only 2 days ahead of the others but they may be more. I really don’t know.

Turning early in incubation is important. It helps keep the yolk or developing chick from sticking to the eggshell. If it does that, it will die. Turning helps a membrane develop that keeps a chick from sticking to the eggshell. That’s a good thing because the chick gets big enough it will touch the side. Another thing turning does is it helps body parts form in the right location. A chick doesn’t need both eyes forming on the same side of its head or even inside the skull. The liver and kidneys need to be in the right place so the plumbing works. If the body parts don’t form in the right place, the chick dies.

By day 14, the membrane has formed so the chick cannot stick to the eggshell. The body parts have formed. You really don’t need to turn the eggs after 14 days. It doesn’t hurt them, but it doesn’t help them either. So after your second batch passes 14 days, maybe on the 7th, stop turning them. It’s that simple.

You’ll see a lot of different humidities bandied around on here. Part of that is that there is a fairly wide band of humidities that work. You don’t have to hit it dead on exact. As long as you are reasonably close, it will work.

Egghead’s drawing is good. The purpose of controlling the humidity during incubation is to increase the air pocket so the chick can internally pip. You’ll find that the same humidities work differently for us, even in the same make and model. If you move the incubator to the other side of the room, it can work differently. I don’t know what causes all these differences. Some of it is manufacturing tolerances. Some of it is the temperature and humidity of the air going onto the incubator. I’m sure there are other causes. What it boils down to is that there is some trial and error involved in determining the right conditions for you with your unique incubator and unique conditions. My suggestion is to try to be as consistent as you can and analyze your hatch. If you are consistent, you may have a better idea of how you may need to tweak your settings.

The reason I called the hatch date theoretical is that it can vary, sometimes quite a bit. There are several different reasons for that. Heredity, humidity, how and how long they are stored (this certainly applies to your two early eggs), or just basic differences in the eggs. For example, some eggs have thicker whites while others have whites that are more watery. That can affect how soon they hatch. The big factor is average incubating temperature. If the average incubation temperature is a little warm they can be early. If it is cool they can be late. I’m talking days with this, not just hours. When I first got my incubator, it was running warm. I had eggs pipping when I went into lockdown, so I tweaked the temperature down a full degree for later hatches. Those early chicks still hatched, by the way. I’ve had chicks hatch 2 full days early, both under a broody and in an incubator set properly. Others have reported hatches a few days late, even under a broody. People like to think temperature is the only variable in when they hatch, but in reality there are several.

Now about opening the incubator during hatch. There are thing s that might happen and things that absolutely will happen each and every time. It’s possible a piece of space junk could fall out of the sky and hit your house today, possible but not likely. It’s possible you could have a fender-bender next time you are in a car, possible and more likely than the space junk, but still not very likely.

It is possible that if you open the incubator when an egg has pipped, the chick in that egg will get shrink-wrapped. I did it once so I know it is possible. The humidity drops enough that the membrane actually dries out and shrinks around the chick. This can also be a sign that your humidity was too low during incubation. If the egg has not pipped, it will not happen. With mine, even if the egg has pipped it hardly ever happens. It’s just something that can possibly happen.

Some people go to the lengths of taking the incubator into the bathroom, turn on the shower, and get it all steamy before they open the incubator. I think that is overkill but some people are more cautious than me. You are likely to be faced with this with those first two chicks. They can go three days after hatch without food or water because they have absorbed the yolk but there is nothing wrong with getting them out earlier. It’s not that they can’t eat or drink, just that they don’t need to. If you see a window of opportunity to get those first two out, grab them. You might have a bottle of warm water handy to mist the other eggs when you do to keep the humidity up. It won’t hurt anything and it might help.

I hate staggered hatches and I really don’t know what is going to happen with your first two, but I really don’t think you are in a lot of trouble. Good luck!

Hello

I can’t thank you enough for your time. I really appreciate it. I don’t have words how overwhelmed I am with your gesture and your kindness. This makes me retain faith in humanity that you took your precious time, understood and listened to a problem of a stranger and gave your input which was perfect and made my job easy. We are happy to have people like you on planet earth.

Your knowledge was so vast and was based on experience so I don’t have any confusion any more about the lockdown. Thank a ton for your time and efforts again.

One more thing. I have been keeping the humidity 55 – 60. So on the lockdown day should I increase it or keep it the same. Are my eggs filled with water already? (Egghead said that its possible if the humidity is too high) . If yes then how should I decrease the humidity inside the eggs?

Thank you very much

 

[Nitin Kumar]

You don't have to turn eggs after day 15ish. People only continue to do it until the higher humidity during the 3 day hatching period to make things simple. So you don't have to open the incubator at all or turn any eggs.

As for humidity most people run lower humidity then up it to around 60% during the last three days. A few run around 50-55% straight through with great success too. You say that's where your at already is 55%ish, I'd keep it there then.

For reference, the humidity numbers are not as important as what's going on in the egg. If you candle you'll see how the air sac is growing over the incubation period. I adjust my humidity to keep to the model of good air sac size. For me and house humidity it means I run 35-40% until hatch days for good growth of the air pocket then up to 55% as normal.



Reason for a good size air sac is when the chicken internally pips it needs an air space to pip into or it can't breath. Note the above diagram is only a reference and not exacting science- as long as there is open air space they can breath.

Thanks a lot. I can't thank yo enough. It really helped and definitely if my hatch is successful a lot of credit goes to you. Thank you again. Ill be sharing pics soon hopefully.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Like I said, different people have different results with humidity. The goal is to get the air pocket about the right size. Candle your egg and use Egghead’s drawing or go online to search for pictures. If the air pocket seems to be reducing on schedule, you are doing OK. If it is too big, it needs more humidity. If it is too small, which is your worry, drop the humidity until you go into lockdown. It’s not an exact science because there is a bandwidth that will work, but the closer you are to the ideal the better off you are.

The goal for raising the humidity at lockdown is to raise it before the eggs external pip. There is nothing magical about Day 18 for that other than some eggs pip that early. Some can be pretty late too. With most of my hatches all the eggs that are going to hatch do so within 24 hours of the first one, even if that first one is way early, either in an incubator or under a broody. But with my last incubator hatch last spring, one chick hatched a full 24 hours before any other egg had pipped, about a day and a half early. Then the other 16 were all out within maybe 14 hours of each other.

There is nothing exact about this stuff, just goals you aim for. Do the best you reasonably can and you will normally do OK. But this stuff is so different for each of us that you need to use the first few times as a learning tool, analyze the results and tweak it so you get better.

The ancient Egyptians incubated eggs, getting heat piped in from a fire. I don’t know any details of how they did it, but they did not have all our modern instrumentation. I’d guess it was something passed down father to son. You might look at incubation as art as much as science. You have to practice to get better.