Lockdown temperature??? I'm a little confused..have I covered all my bases?

[Bazy]

You get so much different advice on here that it can be really confusing. One reason you get so much different advice is that different things work. There is no set one way to the only right way to do it. There are usually many different right ways. Most of these things have acceptable ranges, not one absolute perfect value, like temperature or humidity.

We also have different circumstances or conditions. Your still air incubator is different than a forced air. Each individual egg is unique with the “perfect” conditions for one to hatch different for another egg. There are a lot of different things that go into that, heredity, porosity or thickness of the egg white, how or how long they were stored, just many things. The good news is that there are ranges that work. You don’t have to be exactly precise.

At the stage yours are at, temperature is not hugely critical. You still want it to be in the right range but the chicks are generating a lot of heat inside that egg. They can handle slightly lower temperatures. The problem commercial hatcheries that use incubators or hatchers that can handle 60,000 eggs at one time is keeping the temperature form getting too high. They have to get that excess heat out or the eggs will cook themselves. I doubt you are hatching 60,000 eggs so that’s probably not a big concern of yours but that might be where that recommendation to lower the temperature comes from. These things can get pretty distorted.

Where you take the temperature in a still air is important. Hot air rises so the lower you go the lower the temperature. If you take the eggs out of a turner and lay them flat on the floor, the elevation may drop enough to have an effect on the temperature. Since they generate some heat on their own and just hatched chicks can handle as low as 90 to 95 degrees just fine, that’s not a huge problem unless you drop the elevation a whole lot. I seriously doubt you dropped elevation enough for that to be a problem.

From what I read in your posts, I think you are doing things really well. I would work in getting the humidity up some but you have until they pip to get that right. Until they pip that's not a huge problem. Try not to obsess about it and enjoy the experience, but I understand the first time especially can be pretty intense. Good luck with the hatch.

The humidity right now (partway through day 18) is at 79%. The temperature is 100. I did not use an egg turner, so this time I don't have to worry about altitude but I think I will consider an egg turner later. We'll wait and see what happens. I'm going to try to shoot for 70-75% humidity.

The exciting news is that I have seen almost ALL the eggs rock just a little! There are 16 in there now and of course I had to stand over them for an hour to see all the movements. My kids are calling me "Crazy Chicken Lady"!

I'm very anxious to have a successful hatch because I have ordered 18 Jubilee Orpington eggs that I am picking up next Sunday. They are my 'dream birds' so to speak. I figured I had better get it over with quick before my husband realizes what's happened!

Ridgerunner, Thank you for your reply. It's very reassuring and has a lot of information! The time people on this forum take out of their day to answer and reassure is golden to me!

 

[RRobbin]

Its so nice to hear this! I'm starting my first hatch and unfortunately had 14 eggs ready the 24th and 12 eggs that I will add tomorrow morning do to shipping delay. You are the first person that I'm reading that dose a staggered hatch.

Any input is great to hear! I have a still air so my temp is staying rt at 100 maybe a couple hrs during the day 102...humidity is 40 to 50%.

It's my first time also, and I was wondering the same thing about the temperature. I also have a couple eggs that will hatch 4 to 5 days after the others. So this is very helpful.