Lock down Question

[davony's chicks]

Just wanted to see how many of you really lock down? Do any of you ever check to see if there is any peeping going on in the egg? Do any of you open the bator to mist?
Just how important is lock down?

Thanks in advance for you input.

 

[smchickfarm]

I do lockdown. It is important. You want to bump up your humidity and stop turning them. Once they pip the egg, you do not want to open the bator, because if your humidity drops, you can shrinkwrapped them.

In the past I have had to open the bator while they were hatching, and I did mist some water in there while I had it open.

Good Luck

 

[redhen689]

I have never had a problem in opening the incubator.
I've taken eggs out and held them up to my ear to tell which ones are peeping.
I've never had any problem.
I don't open it up and leave it open, I work quickly to do what I want/need to do, and close it back up again.

 

[Lacrystol]

I have never had a problem opening the bator, in fact, I experimented one time. I opened the bator up twice as if I was still turning them. I left the humdity and temp at the same degree as if I had just put the eggs in my incubator, Did my chicks hatch yes, every single one of them hatched and I didn't change a thing. The only thing I did differently at Lockdown, I stopped turning them. Someone once said "hens don't go into Lockdown" and in my past experiment it worked for me... I wouldn't advise anyone to try this but it did work for me... I even posted it on here "why lockdown, they still hatched"..

 

[davony's chicks]

Thanks for the replies!
I have been opening it since day 18 and misting the eggs because the humidity was too low. Today is day 21 and no pipping. I was going to hold one up to my ear to see if I could hear anything but didnt want to do that.
Guess I will have to try that.

Thanks!

 

[chickmashnoon]

I check to see if there is peeping, but I put my ear to the incubator rather than open it up. I do lockdown, and the one time I did open the bator to remove the first chicks that hatched ( it worried me that they were knocking around the few unhatched eggs), the one remaining that finally hatched ended up with splay leg. Now, I have heard several reasons for this , only one of them is opening the incubator and losing humidity, but I tell you I wish I hadn't.

If I hadn't, I'd be sure that it wasn't my fault.

I assume there is a reason that sooo many people before me believe that it helps to "lockdown" the incubator that I'm not going to risk it ever again. After all, does holding an egg up to your ear make it hatch faster? I'd just leave them in there for another day or two regardless of hearing peeping or not.

Do you have a way of pouring water in there without removing the top? perhaps the next batch you should modify your 'bator so that you can. And I hope your babies are just late bloomers! Good luck on your hatch!