I had my humidity at 30% for the first 13 days - that's my usual incubation humidity, shipped or unshipped. I candled on day 13, just because I had the time then, and I decided some air cells were too big - they looked like a normal air cell on top with another air cell of almost equal size down the side connected to it. It looked like a figure-8 and, in total, larger than what you'd want on day 18. I didn't want to go crazy, so I just put a shot glass of water inside next to the turner. That bumped the humidity up to about 40% for days 14 to 18. I was out late on Friday and locked down on the morning of day 19 with a humidity of 65%. The water tray I use for lockdown has a lot of surface area but not much depth, so it will come down to around 55-60% before I add more water. When I locked down yesterday morning, I did a quick candle in the light of day. The air cells that were day-18-size on day 13 look about the same size - good for lockdown. But the air cells that looked fine on day 13 also haven't enlarged much - and I realized my mistake. They look like about day 14 air cells, so I messed up. I saw definitive movement during my quick candle in about half of the eggs so I know that those at least were alive yesterday morning. Probably others were alive, too, and I would have seen more if the curtains had been closed and I had taken a little longer. I know that big thunderstorms have been known to ruin a hatch, but I can't remember where I read it. No one had pipped though - no idea if that would be a protective factor. Sigh. I'm mad at myself. I've been way too busy and haven't been giving this hatch the proper attention. I'm just hoping that I get at least a few healthy chicks. I'm tempted to candle again to see if I can see any internal pips, but I'm not going to mess with it. I've never hatched this breed before - maybe I can hope they are just lazy hatchers?
