I wish they would not talk about day this or day that, it just leads to confusion. It should be days of development. An egg does not have 24 hours of development the instant it is put in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for an egg to develop 24 hours worth.
If you candle an egg after 8 full days of development, you should expect to see the development pictured for the eighth day. If you candle an egg after seven full days and one second of development, you should look at the seven day pictures to know what to expect, not the eight day pictures.
If you put your eggs in the incubator on Tuesday the 10th at 8:00 a.m., then one day of development will have occurred at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 11th. Eighteen days of development will have passed at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday the 28th. The full 21 days of development will have passed and the eggs should start hatch at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday the 31st.
The day of the week you set the eggs is the day of the week they should hatch.
Hatching is not an instantaneous process, of course. The chick positions itself in the egg, then rests, then it pips, then rests, sometimes a long time. Then it zips. Eventually it pushes the egg apart and starts to dry off. The whole process can take a while. If the incubator average temperature is a tad high, the chicks can hatch early. If it is just a bit cool, they will hatch late.
Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!
So just to confirm tomorrow is day 18, I started the eggs in the incubator at 12:00 p.m. and counted that as day 1. So tomorrow on day 18, is that when I put them in lockdown? Or do I wait until the day after? I just want it to go well this time, I have been measuring the humidity regularly and things look good so far, I don't know where things went wrong with my first hatch but when I checked the eggs there were a bunch that looked fully developed but then never pipped. If someone could confirm step by step, that would be great!
