Expression "Lock Down"

[HoglundH]

What exactly does this mean?? In reference to incubation / brooding?

Picking up our first Incubator today. Trying to learn as much as possible.

Harold and Wendy

 

[Doormantnt]

That is a BYC term ( I think). that is the last 3 days of incubation when you increase the humity, and cut off fingers of people who try to open the incubator. Bator remains "locked" and stable in temp and humity.

TNT

 

[Doormantnt]

And WELCOME TO BACKYARD CHICKENS....

Just watch it....this place is addictive.

TNT

 

[midget_farms]

lock down describes the period from day 18 usually through day 21 or the hatch.

In that period you no longer need to turn the eggs - so most people move them from the turners to the hatching level if they have such a thing.

For those last couple of days you want higher humidity too. So opening the lid can cause a quick drop in humidity. Not that big of a deal if the egg is still intact, but once they pip (poke the first hole) that short drop can cause "shrink wrap" which means the membrane inside the egg rapidly shrinks & encases the chick preventing it from hatching.

So - people will "lock down" the inc. those last couple of days to prevent any unfortunate accidents.

I've heard of many people who still open them & play with them right up until the pip. Its just a matter of how comfortable you are with doing so.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Totally agree with this.

The times are for chickens. Other birds have different times but the principle is the same.

Since you are new to incubation, I'll offer this link. It has some good information. A word of warning to not get too hung up on the guidelines in this link. Many of us violate some of them and still do well. For example, I don't have a place the perfect temperature to store the eggs so I just do the best I can. Failing to follow a suggestion does not guarantee absolute failure, just like following the guidelines exactly does not guarantee perfect success. They just improve your odds of a good hatch. You'll also get a lot of conflicting information on this forum. That's because a lot of different things work for different people in different circunstances. I suggest you try to pick out what is closest to your situation and go with that.

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/b6092.pdf

You'll see things referrenced as day 9, day 18, and such relative to incubation. This terminology confuses a lot of people. To me, it seems that Day 1 should be the day you put eggs in the incubator. It is not. An egg does not have 24 hours of development 2 seconds after it is put in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for an egg to have 24 hours worth of development. As an example, if you set chicken eggs on Tuesday the 4th, lockdown would be on Saturday the 22nd, a full 18 days later. Hatch should be on Tuesday the 25th. With chicken eggs, an easy way to remember when they should hatch is that hatch day should be the same day of the week you set them. In my example, you set them on a Tuesday so they should hatch on a Tuesday.

Something else about hatch day. If your incubator is running just a bit hot, the eggs will hatch a little early. If it is running a bit cool, hatch will be late. Mine was running warm and I had some hatch on day 19. I locked those down at the end of 18 days of development and and still got a good hatch. They are tougher than you might think.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[latebloomer]

good information here
and on the link

thank you

 

[pontoosuc]

My question on lockdown is:

If a hen is sitting on eggs, does she stop turning them on day 18?

 

[gryeyes]

While I suspect the above question was supposed to be snarky, one might just be surprised at the answer: the last few days of incubation, the hen senses the growing chick and while she will cluck to it, she becomes nearly somnambulant, trance-like, and may not even leave the nest to evacuate waste, eat or drink. She hardly moves at all during this period, until the eggs begin to pip.

 

[pontoosuc]

Quote:
My apologies if I sounded snarky, that was not my intent. It's just always been a question that I've had when reading about incubating and lockdown.
Thank you for your response! Really appreciate it.