Hi,
I am a newbie and accidentally started a staggered hatch. They are four days apart, and the first batch has 2 live eggs, whereas the second has 5 (eggs were delivered and in the first batch 4 were delivered dead). The first batch is on day 14, and the second is on day 18. The eggs seem fine so far (except for saddle air-cells in some), growing rapidly, and I am candling them maybe too often and monitoring their growth. Yesterday I saw a little chick jumping about and I think I saw a leg too.
I'm scared that I kept the humidity too high at points during the incubation (65%) - the air cells seem OK and not too small, but I am not sure. Two days ago, I lowered the humidity to around 35% to counteract the higher humidity, and the air cells seem to have grown a bit.
Now, I don't know whether to start lockdown now or in a couple of days. I don't want my eggs to die, as many have saddle air-cells so have a lower chance anyway. My gut instinct is telling me to start lockdown now and continue turning the 5 eggs in the second batch until day 18, but this would require me to open the incubator for about 30 seconds every couple hours, which apparently is bad, and would also mean I would have to raise the humidity. My logical side is telling me to start lockdown later, since 5 eggs are more valuable than two, but I really don't want to do this if early lockdown won't really affect the 5 eggs, and also since I have become attached to my tiny blue and little brown speckled egg.
(as a side note, is the Welsummer the only chicken that will make a medium-brown speckled egg?)
I would love any information you guys might have.
Thanks
I am a newbie and accidentally started a staggered hatch. They are four days apart, and the first batch has 2 live eggs, whereas the second has 5 (eggs were delivered and in the first batch 4 were delivered dead). The first batch is on day 14, and the second is on day 18. The eggs seem fine so far (except for saddle air-cells in some), growing rapidly, and I am candling them maybe too often and monitoring their growth. Yesterday I saw a little chick jumping about and I think I saw a leg too.
I'm scared that I kept the humidity too high at points during the incubation (65%) - the air cells seem OK and not too small, but I am not sure. Two days ago, I lowered the humidity to around 35% to counteract the higher humidity, and the air cells seem to have grown a bit.
Now, I don't know whether to start lockdown now or in a couple of days. I don't want my eggs to die, as many have saddle air-cells so have a lower chance anyway. My gut instinct is telling me to start lockdown now and continue turning the 5 eggs in the second batch until day 18, but this would require me to open the incubator for about 30 seconds every couple hours, which apparently is bad, and would also mean I would have to raise the humidity. My logical side is telling me to start lockdown later, since 5 eggs are more valuable than two, but I really don't want to do this if early lockdown won't really affect the 5 eggs, and also since I have become attached to my tiny blue and little brown speckled egg.
(as a side note, is the Welsummer the only chicken that will make a medium-brown speckled egg?)
I would love any information you guys might have.
Thanks
