Learning the ropes of incubaing and hatching???

[Sunflowergirl]

Have an incubator on the way in the mail! Where can I look to learn the ropes of incubating and hatching eggs?
On other threads, I see terms like:
internal pips
external pips
zips
I have no idea what any of this is and want to learn!
I have a basic understanding of how temperature and humidity need to work on Days 1 - 18 and 18 - hatch.
Would someone direct me to where I can start learning the details?
Thanks!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf

Start by reading this. It won't answer all your questions but it's a start.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Thank you Ridgeruner!
I absolutely did not know WHERE to start!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

While you were reading that, I’ve been typing.

Chicken eggs should take about 21 days to hatch from when you start incubating them. This can vary by a few days due to different things but 21 days is the target. I’ve had eggs hatch more than two full days early. Others have posted theirs were more than three days late. It’s not an exact science.

During the first several days of incubation the body parts form. Then they grow. Then before the eggs hatch certain things happen.

The chick internal pips. That’s where it punctures the air cell and learns to breathe air instead of living in a liquid environment. It also absorbs the yolk so it can live three days or so after hatch without eating or drinking. It dries up blood vessels it no longer needs and does some other things.

When it’s ready, it external pips. That’s where it pokes a hole in the shell and breathes air from outside the egg. It then finishes the other stuff it was doing like drying up those blood vessels and does something to that gunk it’s been living in so when it comes out it dries nice and fluffy, not all gunked up. It’s actually working pretty hard while it’s laying there.

When it is ready it zips. That’s where it cuts a path all the way around the egg so it can push the two parts apart and come out.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Great explanation! (Now all I have been reading makes sense!)
I have seen posts where different ones debate doing lock-down at or before an internal pip or at or before an external pip. I assume when you candle the egg for an internal pip, you see a beak in the airspace?