Lockdown this p.m. BUT I hear chirping!!??? UPDATE--Pictures post 18

[Kittymomma]

When I turned the eggs (still air lg--no turner) this a.m. I thought I hear chirping, but couldn't be sure. I was just back there checking temps (again!) and tapped on the window---well there's a lot of chirping for sure! So my question is, I wasn't planning to lock down until tonight since they're due on Sunday, but should I lockdown now and bump the humidity up? Humidity is at around 52 and I'm scared to make any big changes until this evening because the darn lg is sooooo touchy and I have to go to parent teacher conference at DS's school and take DD to an eye appt. this afternoon.

This is my first hatch and I'm unsure how long is usual from cheeping to pipping. If someone can tell me that they can cheep days before they pip I'll just stick to the plan. I think I've read that, but can't remember for sure and have to get dinner in the crock pot before I head out in an hour so am being lazy about trying the search function and hoping someone will take pity on me.

 

[bigstack]

It's close enough! You can go ahead and lockdown now. It wont hurt nothin. Congrats on the soon to be Fuzzy Butts!

God Bless!

 

[bigstack]

It can still be 2-3 days! It really just depends on when they feel like popping out. LOL Its the hard part now! KNowing they are ready but havving to wait until they feel like blessing us wit their presence. LOL
Im sending Good Hatching Vibes Your way!!!

God Bless!

 

[Kittymomma]

Thank you, I feel better! I think I'll wait until I get done with my running around this afternoon and fiddle with the humidity for lockdown when I get home. Everytime I have to make a change with the lg I have to check it constantly to prevent disaster. Once it's dialed in it works pretty good, but when I went from dry (25-30% humidity) to 50% humidity at day 7 the temp. wanted to hang at 104 instead of 101.5. I really didn't want to change it until I could be home to chicksit.

Now I just have to sit on my hands--the urge to go tap on the bator so I can hear that sweet little chirp is almost overwellming.

 

[ranchhand]

What kind of eggs and are you positive about the day count? What's your temp like?

Bantams will often hatch early, so be aware of that. I'd wait and do lockdown tonight, since your humidity is already pretty high. If it's been running that high you may have a little bit of an early hatch.

Good hatching vibes sent your way!

 

[Fluffy-Butt-Farms]

We have 3 incubators going at all times, and even though we are exact at days, we have had oops's where on lockdown, we've had some pipped before we did it. We have even gotten to the point that if the cheeping gets louder, we know one came out and it's a call to arms.

because you are using a still air, you are running with hot and cool spots. the way we have combatted the problem of really hot spots is to have 2 thermometers one in front and one in back, and take the average...keeping the hot one at about 101. So, that being said, your eggs that are laying in the hot spot, are going to hatch first.

a cheap fix to a still air....and it works awesome...
go to radio shack and by a 7 volt little fan. about 1 inch by 1 inch. (12.99) take a 12 vold plug (like for a cell phone, etc that you can get at a thrift store for about a dollar) and put the fan into the incubator. it's quiet, moves the air around nicely, and doesn't cost the 45 dollars that the fan kit does.

your cool eggs may take the 23-24 days to hatch. dont throw any out until after day 25. i always candle on lockdown, and if i dont see movement in the eggs, i put them to the back with an x on them. the last hatch, i had 8 back there, and 5 of them hatched... so now i dont give up on anything.

Also, we run 45 - 55 humidity all the way thru, and it works well...especially in the lg, where if you sneeze, it goes crazy.

 

[Kittymomma]

This is just a test batch of 2-doz. of my own barnyard mix and they are all LF. I candled on day 14 and everybody seemed to be developing, some of the eggs are pretty dark though so all I could really see is a big blob and the air cell. I'm sure of the dates, I put them in around 10 p.m. on a Saturday (good excuse not to go to MIL for Easter--have to do it here 'cause the kids want to see the chicks hatch.

) I've been moving the eggs around when I turn them to try to offset the hot spot issue, but I'll be sure to wait before tossing any unhatched eggs out. Thanks everybody. I love this community!

 

[Kittymomma]

Well, when I got home yesterday afternoon I had 3 pips

I quickly moved all the eggs into the cut down cartons I'm using for hatching, with the excepetion of the one that pipped 2/3 down the shell towards the pointy end, I left that one on it's side. Filled the water trays and locked them down. So far humidty is avg. 65 and has been as high as 75, but only for an hour or so. I had one healthy (and loud!) looking little chick out this a.m. and pips in 12 of the eggs. Some of the pips are getting pretty big so hopefully there will be some zipping soon. The egg that was pipped close to the wrong end has made a little more progress too. I'm really hoping that one pulls thru since it's one of two eggs from my son's "baby girl." This is nerve wracking!!

 

[Kittymomma]

Well I have 12 out and 6 more pips so things are rocking right along. I won't give up on the other eggs for a few more days since they weren't even due to hatch until Sunday. Obviously I need to fine tune the thermometers since I had two in there and they both read the same, but if they were right I shouldn't have all these fuzzy butts hatched out already.

Now the next big challenge is keepin my DS out of the bator!

 

[jossanne]

Congratulations! That is fantastic news, and I'm thrilled for you.

I'm so jealous! My babies aren't due til Wednesday, and I'm dying. They're under a mama hen, so I can't even watch.