Need help as i have messed up with my incubation

[yuaan]

Hello folks,

I am very sad and angry on myself. I have placed 1 set of 4 eggs in incubator on the 17 april 2014at 1am and then i got given some eggs from y friend who i have placed in incubator on the 19th april 2014.

I have locked my eggs on 3rd of april as the egg have started to rock so I got worried if the egg get shrink wrapped inside. Now when I have read about lockdown I have realised that the lockdown should have been on the 5th April. so 2 day early lockdown for first set of eggs and 5 days early for second set of eggs.
Despite increasing the humidity to about 60 to 65% the air sacs on egg set 2 are growing fine but from set 1 there is one egg who have nearly grown half of the egg. the rest egg sacs are growing slowly and the eggs have stopped wiggling. I am so worried and angry on myself as I might killed my chicks.

just to double check on couting day :
If I have placed eggs on 17th april at 1am when should my lockdown be?

Please guys I need some suggestions.

 

[Tuhmu]

You are correct that your lockdown would be May 5th. I can't be much of help outside of that, still learning the art of incubation myself.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yuuan, the way to count is to not think of it as Day 1, Day 18, but instead to think of it as Days of Development. An egg does not have a day’s worth of development two seconds or two hours after it goes into the incubator. It takes 24 hours before it has a day’s worth of development. You should lock down after 18 days of development. It’s really easy to get confused, but a good way to check your counting is that the day of the week you set them should be the day of the week they should hatch. You set them on a Thursday so they should hatch on a Thursday.

You set them on Thursday, April 17. Lockdown should be Monday the 5th. Hatch should be Thursday the 8th.

Your goal with the humidity is that the eggs need to lose a certain amount of moisture before hatch so the air cell is big enough for them to be able to learn to breathe air instead of the liquid they have been living in. If it is too big you run other risks. The good news is that there is a fairly wide margin for error. You don’t have to be really precise with this, but you do need to be reasonably close.

I do not like staggered hatches from starting eggs at different times because it adds to your stress, plus it can lead to some difficulties with the hatch. I cannot give any advice except to carry on from where you are today. I would leave the humidity high. It is too late to do otherwise. Those eggs are often quite tough, the life force is strong. You may have good success. I sure hope so.

Something else I think is important. The 21 days of development for them to hatch is an estimate. There are many different things that can make them hatch early or late; heredity, humidity, how and how long you store them before you start incubation, and just basic differences I the individual eggs. Average incubation temperature is a strong force also. If your average temperature is high, they can be early, if it is low they can be late. I’ve had eggs hatch a full two days early, both under a broody hen and in my incubator. I’ve also had them hatch right on time. Some people report them being a few days late, both with an incubator and with a broody hen. That uncertainty adds to your stress levels too. Being patient right now is your best friend, hard as that may be. Don’t give up hope.

Good luck!