Starting lockdown early?

[pete55]

Hi

I think the point Im trying to make is that if an egg is borderline for adequate weight loss then even 24 hours may increase the overall weight loss by an additional 1% which may be make or break, especially in valuable eggs. When we have incubated valuable eggs which have not reached the target weight loss then I use a lower humidity right up to the external pipping stage to try and tip the scales in the chick's favour. It's simply a case of trying everything I can to increase the sucess rate.

I understand that its better to have achieved the desired moisture loss before the final stages of incubation and this makes for a stronger chick. Its also good practice

Pete

 

[scoopy82]

Thanks for the replies everyone

My air cells are right on target, I'm very happy with the size of them so even though I havent weighed them I am confident they are looking spot on. I dont know if yinepu is talking about someone else as I never mentioned my air cells were small, but as we know it is all a learning curve so my next hatch I will probably weigh the eggs just to see how my visual analasis stacks up. I also am not confident about assisting eggs in trouble, I believe nature will take its course and what is meant to be will be, I would hate to do more damage than good.
I think I will take the turner out a day early and steadily raise the humidity starting from then so by official lock down day it will be at my target reading.
Thanks again all

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
I was replying to pete55 saying for you to NOT go into lockdown early due to air cell size.. he seemed to think there was a size problem with the air cell.. (I assumed he had contacted you elsewhere since he was pretty adamant that there was an issue with the air cells being too small)
I said one day wouldn't make a difference if they were too small and IF there was any issues with the chicks hatching because of air cells being too small that it would be too late to worry about that at lockdown and that we need to be more concerned that the chicks hatch out as they should

So I wasn't confusing you with someone else.. i was just assuming that since pete55 was so adamant that there would be a problem that perhaps he had more info about your eggs than what i had seen

sorry for the confusion.. but hey.. at least we care about your eggs!

 

[scoopy82]

No worries yinepu, and yes thank you for your advice and thoughts, I love hearing from those with more experience than myself, it is the easiest way I have found to learn about all this

.
I was really only asking the question as both hatches seem to have hatched early, even though their development seems to have been spot on. I've not encountered any serious problems other than some temp swings and a power outage for 2 hours, I am really happy with the eggs themselves. I'm not sure if my slightly warmer temperatures would cause them to hatch early, but I was more asking in regards to removing the turner and not opening the lid again. I have been keeping my humidity at 40-50% and it will be 65% for lockdown (I know everyone has often very different opinions on the right levels but this is what I have concluded will work for me), and my first hatch was acutally pretty much a dry hatch (humidity was at about 20% as I was reading from an inaccurate hygrometre). From that hatch too there were non that hadn't absorbed all the yolks or any that struggled after hatching (except one that hatched 3 days later and was tiny and not formed properly and died 12 hours later) so they appeared perfectly ready to hatch. Monday 6pm will be lockdown for me and Thursday 6pm hatching is due to being, but I predict that they will start on Wednesday, it will be interesting to see what happens anyway

 

[LilyD]

Quote:
No it should be okay I put one batch into lockdown a day early because it was a mixed date batch so I was trying to hit the middle ground and they hatched well still.

 

[angry gary]

wow what detailed information! i am just trying to hatch 6 chickens eggs and now i feel completely overwhelmed! did anyone happen to tell the broody hen about all this?? i understand the details when hatching parrots and valuable birds. time is money.

i have been turning them a few times a day. and i only candled them last night for the first time. that was day 10 yesterday. i see the air sacs you spoke of on four of them. two appear to be duds. they are still "clear" inside. two that i candled had movement when i turned them while candling and two did not. so i guess i will treat them all as viable at this point. i have not even heard of weighing them until this thread so i am not going to even get involved with that!

so i guess my very basic question is ," when should i put them in lockdown?" day 15 or 16?. right now they are around 50- 60% humidity and around 99.5 to 100.5 degrees. i know there are wide variables that i must take into account . but i am looking for a basic time frame if all is going as it should.

i am only trying to hatch these eggs because they came from a couple EE's i bought that were kept with roos. i am not looking to create a chick factory, just trying to see if i can do it.

thanks,

AG

 

[hdowden]

i know lockdown is day 18 and everyone suggest that the humidity be around 45 up until lockdown when it should be raised to about 65-70.

 

[LilyD]

Quote:
Day 18 is when I raise mine but if you are starting lockdown early you can always wait to raise it until you get your first pip I have heard of people doing that too. I try to make sure that mine is at least around 60 day 18

 

[angry gary]

thanks for the replies. i wasn't trying to be a jerk, i was just looking for some simple answers. i have used the search engine but it comes up with a ton of reading which , honestly, i do not like doing.

thanks again,

gary

 

[scoopy82]

Hey Gary - the one thing I have found about using the search engine here is that you can be sure you will get 48 different ways and opinions about doing something. Everyone has their own way and it is amazing how one way will work brilliantly for one person and stuff everything up for the next person. I have found that incubating is a huge learning curve and you just have to work out what works for YOU! It may take several attempts and a fair few fails before you sort it out, which I'm definitely still doing, but in the end things will improve as long as you learn from what you are doing. This whole topic was started as I suspected my eggs would hatch early. Well guess what? This time they didn't. They were pretty much right on time, and I had put them in lock down early and then had a horrible hatch rate (only 8 of 24) so not sure if the early lockdown did it or not. I had lots of fully formed chicks that never broke into the air cell, and seemed a little bit fluidy so next time plan to have my humidity lower during the first 18 days and try to keep it a steady 65% in lockdown.
Good luck, i dont think there are any simple answers with this caper, you just seem to stumble onto the right path by chance (well thats my experience anyway), I hope you end up with some chicks!