Day 18 of first ever incubation!! Help please!!

[stavin131]

Hiya guys. Thanks so much for the help and support so far through my incubation process!! I am so excited to say of the 18 eggs i set in the incubator at day 18 i have 10 of them still in there!! Today is my last day of turning and tonight lock down will begin. Now i understand the no turning and raising humidity but when. Do i do it tonight when i set the eggs into place or do i raise humidity in the morning on what would technically be day 19? I am rasing it to about 65-70% i have had it steadily at 42-47% throughout. Also i have read in a few places about lowering the temperature by about half a degree?? And also have read when they started to hatch to lower humidity to help them dry out easier?
Just want to do the best I can for them so any tips and advice please share!!
Also is anyone else at this point of incubation? Would love to share this experience with someone else doing it too!! All my friends (and husband) think im crazy!! Lol thanks stacey

 

[Wyandottes7]

I would raise the humidity and stop the turning now. When I incubate, I always raise the humidity and stop turning the eggs on the eighteenth day, and have pretty good hatches (sometimes near 100%).

Some people lower the temperature. However, I have never done this, as my incubator does not have a temperature control acute enough to lower (or raise) the temperature by only 1/2 degrees, and keep it steady. My hatching temperature fluctuates from about 99-100.5 degrees. If your iincubator can lower the temperature accurately and keep it steady, go ahead and lower the temperature by 1/2 degree.

I have never heard of lowering the humidity at hatch. Usually, all the eggs don't hatch at once, and lowering the humdity when only a couple chicks have hatched could endanger the other eggs. I've had no problems with chicks drying off with my humidity at 65-70%.

Hope this helps!

 

[stavin131]

Thankyou so much!! I am just about to raise humidity now and initiate lockdown!! So excited and nervous at the same time!! Hope iv done this right!! Lol out of ten i must surely at least get a few!! Fingers crossed!!

 

[stavin131]

They are cheeping away at me today!! Its so exciting! Im guessing i will see pipping tomorrow and hatching saturday? How long does this part of the process usually take from experience as i have read and been told a few different things and i dont want to miss too much!! Lol

 

[Wyandottes7]

They are cheeping away at me today!! Its so exciting! Im guessing i will see pipping tomorrow and hatching saturday? How long does this part of the process usually take from experience as i have read and been told a few different things and i dont want to miss too much!! Lol

Sometimes it takes a very short time, other times it will take a while. For one of my hatches, chicks started peeping one night, and they hatched the next morning. Another one of my hatches had chicks start peeping about two days before the actual hatch (it was a late hatch caused by too low a temperature).

 

[stavin131]

Absolutely amazing i watched them pip and hatch yesterday (9/10) and the last one hatched this morning. Fantastic and i cant wait to try with duck eggs now!!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Nice job on your first hatch! It lets you know your temperature is accurate and that's the biggest influence to hatching. Don't change a thing.