Lockdown is tomorrow 3/31! Questions, HELP!!

[Wensleydale Farms]

My lockdown is tomorrow!! What do I need to know besides taking the eggs out of the turner and not opening the incubator? This is only my second time hatching. My first hatch I only had 3 hatch.

 

[smchickfarm]

first congrats!!

next, make sure to bump your humidity up. What is the humidity right now????

 

[Wensleydale Farms]

Thank you! after I read this and bumped up the humidity to about 50%. Does it need to be higher?

 

[Farmin Momma]

Yes, for lockdown it should be about %75-80.

 

[nurse_turtle]

IMO 75-80% is too high. I use dry incubation and only add water at lockdown. I add enough warm water to bring humidity to about 60%. When the chicks start hatching, the humidity will rise on its own due the to wet chicks. I remove my chicks when they are dry and active, but I do wait until there are several to remove at once as to minimize the number of times the incubator is opened during lockdown. Also, it's o-kay to let the temp fall a bit if the chicks are going to spend a day or more in the incubator. I went into lockdown tonight as well. When I placed the eggs in lockdown, there were already 2 pips in the tiny game eggs.

 

[laura877]

I did the dry method for the first time and had almost a 72% hatch rate. I kept my humidity at 65%. There were times that it dropped and I got some hot water out of the faucet and put a couple of capfuls (pop bottle caps) in. I was using a still air incubator.

 

[Wensleydale Farms]

Ok, Thank You all for the responses. I have bumped up the humidity to about 65%. I keep checking on it to see if anything has happened yet and am trying hard to sit on my hands.

 

[smchickfarm]

Hang in there and Good Luck!!!

Keep us posted!!!