Shortening the incubation to 20 days?

[Fairview01]

I know it's written in stone, an absolute rule and it can probably be found in the Bible that 'Tho shalt incubate chicken eggs for 21 days.'

I was wondering if there were any brave souls who wanted to risk not going to heaven and intentionally raise the temp to hatch in 20 days? Apparently looking at the thermometer at an angle can cause a slight error.

I set my eggs to hatch on day 19 instead of 18. I noticed a lot of eggs were cracked and then I held one up to my ear and gave it a good thump and I could hear the chick. They went cracked they were pipps. Anyway they all hatched before the end of day 20 but they all seemed more robust and vigorous.

Just curious if anyone else has experimented doing this and results.

 

[R2elk]

I know it's written in stone, an absolute rule and it can probably be found in the Bible that 'Tho shalt incubate chicken eggs for 21 days.'

I was wondering if there were any brave souls who wanted to risk not going to heaven and intentionally raise the temp to hatch in 20 days? Apparently looking at the thermometer at an angle can cause a slight error.

I set my eggs to hatch on day 19 instead of 18. I noticed a lot of eggs were cracked and then I held one up to my ear and gave it a good thump and I could hear the chick. They went cracked they were pips. Anyway they all hatched before the end of day 20 but they all seemed more robust and vigorous.

Just curious if anyone else has experimented doing this and results.

There have been many that have had their hatches occur a day early or even a day or more late due to faulty thermometer readings. Chicks that hatch a day early tend to be healthier than chicks that hatch late.

Chicks normally hatch on day 21 naturally when a hen incubates them. The number of days was not arbitrarily chosen since it is the number of days required when conditions are ideal.