I forgot to turn off cooling during lockdown.

[BecsRitchie]

Hello everyone,

I have been riffling through the pages of this forum for over 2 years now since I got my first backyard chickens. I am a complete chicken addict! I have previously hatched only 2 batches of eggs both successful. But it has been a while since I got my little incubator out and dusted it off.

I had some Lavender Orp eggs mailed to me and am not on day 21. I am down to 2 eggs as 2 never got going and 2 stopped developing around day 11.

My final two are at day 21 and no movement, cheeping or pipping. I know they is still plenty of time but I just realized I had forgotten to turn off the cooling function when I locked down. Could this delay the hatch or even kill them??? I'm already very skeptical about this batch of eggs given how many didn't work out so far. Also the air sacs were very wonky indeed. I'm guessing they had a pretty bumpy ride over here!

Any thoughts on the cooling effect on lockdown time would be very helpful.

Best wishes

Becs x

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello everyone,

I have been riffling through the pages of this forum for over 2 years now since I got my first backyard chickens. I am a complete chicken addict! I have previously hatched only 2 batches of eggs both successful. But it has been a while since I got my little incubator out and dusted it off.

I had some Lavender Orp eggs mailed to me and am not on day 21. I am down to 2 eggs as 2 never got going and 2 stopped developing around day 11.

My final two are at day 21 and no movement, cheeping or pipping. I know they is still plenty of time but I just realized I had forgotten to turn off the cooling function when I locked down. Could this delay the hatch or even kill them??? I'm already very skeptical about this batch of eggs given how many didn't work out so far. Also the air sacs were very wonky indeed. I'm guessing they had a pretty bumpy ride over here!

Any thoughts on the cooling effect on lockdown time would be very helpful.

Best wishes

Becs x

Cool down- not cool down, shouldn't effect them either way. I don't have an incubator that has the cool down function, but I am hands on and I don't recognize lockdown practices. I still candle if I want through day18 and the actual hatch which means they are getting "cooled down" even during the "lockdown" period. A cool down period the length of the automatic ones during the pipping/hatching stage would concern me, but not prior to that.

Wonky air cells- I'd say that if anything prevented them from hatching it would be whatever they went through in transit that caused the wonky air cells.

 

[BecsRitchie]

Hello, thank you for replying. Glad you don't seem to think the cooling would have caused too much of a problem. It was for about 60mins a day so I wonder if it slowed things down. I researched the wonky air sacs and was relieved to read that this is often a problem with shipped eggs but a lot of breeders tell me they don't worry too much about them. I just did the float test and they look good so for now will keep busy and try not to hover over them every 5 minutes. Fingers crossed!!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello, thank you for replying. Glad you don't seem to think the cooling would have caused too much of a problem. It was for about 60mins a day so I wonder if it slowed things down. I researched the wonky air sacs and was relieved to read that this is often a problem with shipped eggs but a lot of breeders tell me they don't worry too much about them. I just did the float test and they look good so for now will keep busy and try not to hover over them every 5 minutes. Fingers crossed!!!

Yes, air cells are one of the biggest things (the biggest noticeable things) that are affected by shipping of eggs. It depends how bad they are as to what you can expect. Wobbly ones often yield hatchers, totally detached, not so much. Big or saddle air cells are iff, but they have a chance. And good luck with the "not" hovering. lol

 

[BecsRitchie]

Okay so I got up this morning to find no change, pipping or peeping. I broke the no touch rule and candled. Both eggs have moving chicks with their little beaks having pipped into the air sac. Fingers crossed they pip today!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Okay so I got up this morning to find no change, pipping or peeping. I broke the no touch rule and candled. Both eggs have moving chicks with their little beaks having pipped into the air sac. Fingers crossed they pip today!!

Good luck!!! (See, we don't have a no touch rule, so there's nothing to break.

lol)