Time sensitive lockdown day

[RaesChicks]

I’m doing an embryology project with my students and our lockdown day falls on Sunday a day I can’t access the incubator. I am on my way to check on my eggs today and I’m wondering since today is four days till hatch can I take the turntable out of the incubator and lock down a day early, or is it possible to do the lockdown on Monday? If lockdown day needs to be Sunday, should I take home the eggs and lockdown at home please advise I have only a couple hours left to access the eggs.

 

[KolleysKocks]

One time I forgot how many days my eggs were in the incubator and instead of locking down on day 18 I locked down on day 15 and I had 18 out of 20 eggs hatch. I don’t recommend doing that but that one time it happened it didn’t seem to affect them too much. I’ve also forgot to lock down the incubator at all and almost all the eggs hatched that time also. It’s dangerous because they could’ve gotten squashed but the extra days of rolling didn’t seem to affect them either. I’m not sure which one would be best for you right now but I think either way you go the eggs should be okay. It might be best though if you could get them home and back at the right temp within 30 minutes. If not I would choose locking down a day early or locking down later.

 

[nuthatched]

You can lock down a day early, that's fine

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Won't do any harm locking down a day early

 

[Ridgerunner]

When faced with a decision it is important to try to choose what is most likely to do the least harm. The reason you are to lock down on Day 18 is because some eggs can pip and start to hatch 2 to even 3 days early. It happens. So you want them locked down and humidity raised before they pip. Another factor is that the eggs need to lose a certain amount of moisture so they can hatch. That is a pretty wide window, it does not have to be precise.

I think you are a lot better off locking down today instead of waiting until Monday. Lots of people miscount the days and lock down a day early anyway. They still usually get good hatches. Good luck with the hatch and let us know how it goes.