Not sure of exact hatch date...

[OHWVKY]

Hi! This is my first hatch ever and I'm days away, at least I think I am.

The countdown on the incubator says 5 days but I'm pretty positive I put them in on a Tuesday. I did unplug it once briefly in the first few days to add a surge protector so now I'm unsure if it reset then or not. I feel terrible now because I don't know if I should start raising the humidity and stop turning or not.

I candled them last night and there are very few pink areas except at the top of each egg. The tiny pink areas I did find, I could see the black, the chick I assume, moving into the pink some, so I know there's still life inside.

I started with 12 eggs that were given to me, 6 silkie bantams and 6 dark brahma hen/spithauben rooster. 5 of each seem good, 1 of each kind never went past having a blood spot.

I have an incubator from rural king, circulated air and I've been manually turning them. I read up on here and ended up going with temp right at an even 100 degrees and humidity 40-45%.

What should I do? Stop turning them and up the humidity since I'm pretty sure Tuesday is 21 days? What if I'm wrong and the incubator countdown is right? What about accounting for the bantams hatching before the other eggs? Should that be taken into consideration too?

I'm so nervous, thank you for reading and I'd appreciate any and all advice on my first hatch.

 

[Ladybird CA]

I wouldn't worry too much, I have heard of people leaving the eggs, going on vacation for at least 2 weeks and coming back to most or all of the chicks hatching.

As for humidity I would say keeping it around 60-68% will probably be fine. If you are in a dry area like Arizona probably best to try to keep it closer to 68 to account for possible fluctuations.

Chicks can stay in the incubator for 24 hours- bantams usually only hatch about a day earlier than standards so you should be ok for that also.

 

[OHWVKY]

Should I go ahead and start lockdown tomorrow? I'm pretty sure tomorrow is day 19. Incubator says tomorrow is day 17. If I lockdown too early or too early will they die? I know I'm probably over analyzing all this.

 

[Ladybird CA]

I don't think they will die but I can't say for sure. Some people do everything perfectly and get nothing hatch. It might be best that you start lockdown tomorrow.