Lockdown question

[kuhnse51]

It's the beginning of day 19. I candled and weighed last night and none of the eggs had lost the 13% of weight so I put off lockdown and let the humidity decrease. As of now the most weight lost is only 10%. I saw movement in every egg and most of the air cells have grown since last night. My question is do I continue to put off increasing the humidity until I see an internal pip or the weight loss reaches 13%, or should I go into lockdown tonight? I'll be at work all day tomorrow so maybe I should go into lockdown in the morning before I leave even if there still aren't any pips? First time hatcher and I'm worried about getting them all through hatch :/

 

[Lalegid]

Hiya, what level is your humidity sitting at now? I would suggest you aim to keep it around 70-75% as you don't want to risk your chicks shrink wrapping. There probably isn't a whole lot you can do now in regards to the air cell size, better to simply lock down and hope for the best. Next hatch you can aim for a lower humidity over the 21 days. I've had eggs hatch when the environment wasn't ideal so fingers crossed for you.

When you set them for the hatch, sit the eggs with the lowest point of the air cell facing up, as they are more likely to hatch in this portion of the egg. All the best, I hope you get some lovely fluffy chicks soon

 

[BonRae67]

I would do lockdown with the humidity at the correct setting. They are going to do what they are going to do. Hope for the best. I am hopeful for you.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Without being there to watch for pips and hatching I would go ahead and proceed with lockdown.

 

[kuhnse51]

Thanks everybody! I had my humidity around an average of 40% for the whole hatch which I thought was on the lower side so I'm surprised they didn't lose enough. I put them into lockdown last night and have been trying to get the humidity up but its been fighting me and not staying much higher than 60%. I just got it into the 70s this morning so hopefully it will stay there and there will be signs of hatching when I get home

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Have you ever calibrated your hygrometer? It could be that it is off and actually higher than it's reading. My last hatch I ran dry, my hygrometer read 40% dry, (it's not calibrated, but I monitor my air cells very closely). 40% isn't low, in my opinion it's usuallly a good median for humidity. But there are other things such as egg quality, shell quality as well that could keep the egg from not loosing enough moisture too.

 

[kuhnse51]

I have not calibrated it (not really sure how to do that...its one of those accurite therm/hygro combination ones) it reads 16% without any water/in the room. The thermometer reading is usually within a degree or two of 2 other thermometers I've tested it against. It read 80% when I left this morning after adding a moist washcloth. I'm assuming and hoping it decreased a little throughout the day and that none of the chicks will drown I hate not being able to monitor it!

 

[amyhill]

Update please on your hatch. Friday is my first hatch day!

 

[kuhnse51]

I was able to keep the humidity around 65-80% for the most part through lockdown which I started on day 19 (I quickly opened and closed the incubator to resoak the washcloth when humidity started dropping,I never let it drop below 50/55%) I had pips start on day 22 and 5/6 chicks hatch by the end of day 23. The one that didnt hatch was the very first to pip and upon further inspection after everyone hatched I saw that it had not fully absorbed its yolk and its abdomen wasn't fully closed. The one that didn't hatch was the only male, the 5 hatched were girls!
Good luck on your hatch!!