Lockdown Question??

[Ash143]

I have read that my egg turner should be shut off for lockdown, I have a Hova Bator with a Hova Bator turner that holds 41 eggs. What if I have three or four different set dates in my incubator? I could have 6 out of 41 eggs ready for lockdown, but the remainder still need turned, Thank you!

 

[LLranch]

You also need to raise the humidity for lockdown. The only way I know of to successfully do staggered hatch dates is with two incubators one for the incubating with the Turner and a second to use as a Hatcher with no turning and higher humidity for lockdown. At this point if you don't have access to a second incubator the best you can do is put your eggs with the next or second hatch date into lockdown early with the first ones and hope for the best good luck

 

[LLranch]

Another thing you need to know is most people completely remove the Turner from the incubator during lockdown. Hatching is messy business and you're going to end up with pieces of eggshell and nasty dried goo all over the cracks and crevices of your Turner making it horrible to clean

 

[Ash143]

Thanks for your help!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

My suggestion would be to remove the turner, lay them down and hand turn the ones that still need to be turned. The turners can cause safety issues if they are the original turners that turn the eggs sitting upright. Eggs don't need to be turned after 2 weeks so any that are that far along I wouldn't worry about. Staggered hatches in one incubator can be hard because of the humidity needs. If you are constantly having to have humidity up for hatchers the earlier eggs are going to possibily not loose enough moisture. A lot depends on how far apart your sets of eggs are.

The other thing you can do, is some of the turners are made so that you can take the racks out. If your turner has detatchable racks you can take the racks out from the eggs that are going to go into lockdown and leave the others in the turner. Not a big recommendation from me, because like I said, it's safer with the turners out, but it's been done.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

and

 

[Ash143]

Thank you very much!!!