Tips?

[sophiafur]

Hi does anyone have any tips for when in lockdown? What humidity? How to check if their healthy? anything would be appreciated

 

[Sir Eggcellent]

Hi does anyone have any tips for when in lockdown? What humidity? How to check if their healthy? anything would be appreciated

Lockdown is generally done 3 days before hatching—remove them from the turners, and lay them flat in the incubator floor or hatch tray, depending what you have, on a non-skid surface—shelf liner is great. Stop turning the eggs completely at this point, as the chick will be orientating itself to ‘pip’ and peck a hole in the egg shell.

(after it pips, it can be up to 24 hours till they ‘zip’ and peck their way around the egg. They are absorbing the yolk in to their naval at this point, so do not attempt to help within 24 hours for sure.)

I believe humidity should be 65% for chickens. This helps the pipped eggs not to dry out during the time they are absorbing the yolk.

if you haven’t by this time, you can shine a bright light (though it must seal against the egg’s curve to work properly) in to the big end of the egg. By lockdown time, you probably won’t be able to see much, but you could easily see motion inside. It should be pretty dark and full of matter. Usually folks candle earlier, often between days 7-14 to toss any that haven’t started developing, or have started and then died. (I’m hardly confident enough to toss starters, but obvious ‘blood rings’ aren’t too hard to spot.)

Happy hatching!