hard to say what a broody hen does at the end..i have seen stories where people have come home from work thinking they had several more days till lockdown and found chicks running around the edge of the bator turner still running..
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For you guys that have done staggered hatches, how do you clean out the bator between hatches?
I have eggs due Saturday, and then a dozen more Wednesday. i was going to take the later ones out and use another bator. But if this works i can just keep them there....
But what about the mess from the first hatch?
I use 2 incubators. I think it could be risky staggering hatches in the same incubator because the humidity needs to be almost double the last 3 days. Humidity seems to vary for different people, you have to find what works for your location and incubator. I believe the dry method is the most successful for a wide range of people.
i've gotten a bit worried about lockdown myself. but all the time i must say, i've wondered the same thing. a hen doesn't lockdown and her humidity doesn't increase does it?
Sometimes a hen (perhaps not a chicken so much as other birds?) will dip her chest feathers in water and then sit on her eggs to increase humidity. I breed parrots and I make sure that my parrots have a separate bowl of water just for this near to hatch time. So humidity can increase... Though I doubt it always does. To be honest, the reason we probably increase humidity in our artificial incubators is that we have fans blowing on our eggs; once the membrane is introduced to that airflow, it can dry, and then you get stuck babies. Especially in eggs that have a tendency towards thick, elastic membranes, like geese. Under a hen, of course, there is no fan; it is essentially a still-air incubator. A fan will dry a membrane far faster than outside air (say, when you open an incubator) will, especially if the relative humidity in your house is 30%+ as most homes are.
I always increase humidity, but I do open the incubator to remove chicks as they hatch without problems.
Well I am going to run into this situation myself. See this thread for a more detailed reason why....https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...e-cheapest-way-to-build-a-temporary-incubator
I do have a still air hovabator that I put a 4" personal fan in. I take it out at lockdown because I am concerned about the chicks getting into it. I wonder if I just go to around 50% and if an egg needs to be misted a bit I could do that if I would be ok then with the second batch? I am really concerned about this.