Day 18 is a saturday. Take turner out on Friday or wait til Monday?

[off-grid hen]

I've only done this once before, so I'm not sure what to do, or how this would go. I know to take the turner out on day 18. BUT I'm hatching eggs at work, and day 18 is a saturday. It is 28 mile drive from home to work, and I'd rather not have to go just to take the turner out and drive back home.

So which is the best course of action? Take the turner out just before I leave friday evening? -OR- Leave it in and have them delay hatch til monday morning? I would hate for some of the chicks to hatch early (before tuesday) and have them get killed by the turner if they hatch out. Or am I wrong about that too? Would they not hatch unless I've left them still for 2 days?

 

[MuckyPuppy]

I don't think that someone can delay a hatch. If I am wrong I hope someone will be along to correct me.

If it were me, I would "lockdown" as late as I could on Friday after work.

 

[Farmer_Dan]

I agree, I'd lock down friday night and be all excited about it for the hatch on Monday. I'm not an expert, but I'd guess that taking them onto lockdown a day early wont really hurt anything. Make sure you've candled them and removed any potential explosions.

 

[Heathero617]

Why not take the bator home with you and hatch at home?

 

[Gypsy07]

Best course of action would definitely be to lockdown a day early rather than two days late.

Edited to add: I think I'd probably not leave it till the last minute though. I'd want to do it halfway through the day so that I'd be able to check that the humidity was (a) high enough and (b) stabilised before I left work for the whole weekend...

 

[Arielle]

If it's an option, I would take them home.

My chicks arrived on time but my turkey poults arrived 1 day early--go figure

THey shared the same incubator.

My point is it's not unusual for early arrivals, and while their are 2 schools of thought on helping, I did un-shell the last 5, 3 are doing just great. (I figured they should not perish because of my mistakes IMO)

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Heathero617]

f you're worried about losing temps, i have read it takes several hours for the temp inside the egg, with the chicks to go down to dangerous levels. But you could always swing into the local auto parts store, walmart, sears etc and get a power inverter. It plugs into your lighter socket and you can plug a regular house current item into it. I transported eggs home in a soft sided cooler with a heating pad in the bottom because I wasnt sure how long it would take to get home.

 

[off-grid hen]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! The hatch date is Tuesday, and I have someone checking on the eggs (just to peek in the window after lockdown) on Sunday to check for early arrivals.

Thing is, with this batch of eggs, we did not follow the rules. Such rebels we are! 6 eggs were added to an in-process batch of eggs in the bator. During lockdown for the other hathees (all of which made it) we just opened the bator 3 times a day during lockdown- (I know- OMG!) to turn the 2nd batch of eggs, and quickly closed it up again. Of the 2nd batch of 5 after day 3, one was iffy. Candled again today, and the iffy one is defintitely a no-go, but all the others are doing well. Woo! 5 out of 6 isn't bad, and we didn't hurt a single one after the first batch entered lockdown. All that happened was that the first batch hatched late. They were supposed to hatch thursday evening but hatched Saturday morning. Amazing!