I ignore "lockdown".. lol.. been doing this so long when I first saw the term I started laughing since i never heard of such a thing.. but after having manufactured bators instead of home made ones I can see why there is a need for it.. some bators will not get the humidity back up fast enough and some have fans that blow directly onto the eggs causing problems when the chicks start to dry out too quickly during pipping and zipping
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we always called it "hatch" and would routinely check pips.. see how eggs were progressing when doing a staggered hatch.. continue to turn eggs that needed it (staggered hatches) .. check on hatching chicks to see if they needed a bit more humidity and so on..
I was candling eggs this morning that are in "lockdown" to see how many had made internal pips.. and also pulled two hatched chicks out of the bator.. have had it opened two more times turning other eggs and to lower the humidity a bit for the ones still incubating (staggered hatches)
ok.. so what I do isn't "recommended" but you have to realize that the "rules of lockdown" are for newbies who haven't been incubating for a while (or ever) and who don't know what to do when they do check on their eggs to keep problems from arising
so as far as I am concerned.. if you know what you are doing.. the "rules of lockdown" don't apply.. but the rules are a good safety precaution for people who are new to hatching
Well said I agree it really depends on your bator. My styro bator needed to be closed most of the time to keep the humidity but in my old redwood bator it gets the humidity back up in less than 5 min. I have pips today if they hatch I will grab the chicks out.