Walk me through lock down?

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Jeffross1968

Jeffross1968

Songster
8 Years
May 14, 2011
1,130
16
191
Smoky Mountains
So, I'm using an LG still air with turner...this is my test hatch. Started with 8 eggs, dropped one on day 4 for first candle. Left me with 7. 4 of them showed clear all the way to day 10, so they were removed (cracked them open, they were not fertilized). Final 3 have continued progressing through last night, my final candle...moving and looking good. Temps, for the most part, have stayed between 100 and 102, with a big oops on day 7ish when I introduced the turner. Lock down is Friday.

I'm going to remove the turner, put rolled up wet paper towel in the water canals, and a damp paper towel over the metal grate. Then I'm going to take some thin cardboard, maybe from a pepsi 12 pack or something, and make little cups, and lay each egg inside one, on it's side, for them to hatch into. Then I'm going to sit back and wait, and make sure the humidity stays good.

I'd like some feedback...am I doing something wrong...missing something? Scary part is that I'm going to be gone a good bit Saturday, and early Sunday...no way around it. Going to be interesting...

Also, since this is my first time, what are the first signs? What exactly is pip? Will the eggs roll around a couple days prior to hatch, and if so, how early?
 
I went on lockdown today. Im using a LG(w/o fan). A pip is when you here peeping from the egg. Thats the chicks trying to get out. When the egg starts to wriggle its getting prepared to come out. A chick can last up to a day getting out. Im a newbie at this since this is my first hatching. Go to the stickie on top it helps a lot. Good Luck:D
 
whoops a pip is the first crack the chick makes on outside of egg i think
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Sounds like you've got everything pretty well planned out. Are you using a hygrometer or are you just guessing on the humidity? It shouldn't be hard to get your humidity up high enough in a still air bator, they're quite easy for that usually. Are you making cardboard cups for the eggs to sit in to stop them moving, like in an egg carton? Or is it to keep each egg separate so you know which egg hatches into which chick?

What to expect? Hmm. If everything is going to schedule, round about day 20 you might see your eggs rocking around. You might hear cheeping coming from inside the egg before you see any pips on the shell. The cheeping means that the chick has broken through the membrane into the air sac, and after that it shouldn't be more than a day or so till you see the shell being pipped. Then again, you might not see or hear anything. Some chicks are sneaky stealth hatchers! And once you do see a pip, don't worry if everything goes quiet for a while. Without a doubt, this is what trips up first-time-hatchers the most. Folk are too quick to assume there's a problem if the chick doesn't pop out quickly. But you need to realise that the resting and waiting is also a very important stage for the chick. When the oxygen inside the air cell starts to run out, the chick is basically forced to pip the shell to reach fresh oxygen outside. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's actually ready to hatch. Usually at this point they still have a large unabsorbed yolk sac attached to their abdomen, and they have to absorb this before they can safely hatch. So once they pip the shell, depending on how far along they are with the yolk sac, they could hatch in an hour or two, or it could be over 24 hours before anything more happens. So don't worry if it seems to be taking ages, okay! Once they're ready to hatch they'll start to turn in the shell and 'zip' the top off the egg. This can take anything from 30 minutes to a few hours. And once they've zipped, they might struggle around for another few hours before they actually flop out. Hatching is really hard work!

With my own eggs from my own birds, if I noticed the first pip at midday on day 21, I'd be expecting the chick to hatch by around 8am the next morning. I'd be expecting to see a few more pips by then too, and probably another chick or two by 8pm that same day. The rest would follow fairly quickly. If I was hatching all the one breed of bird and all the eggs were pretty much the same size, I'd expect the last chick to hatch within 36 hours of the first one making it out. Any longer than 36 hours, I'd be expecting the unpipped ones to be non-viable. But that's just me and what I've come to expect from my own birds. If I was hatching a different breed, or shipped eggs, I'd fully expect that the timing might be a bit different, and I wouldn't worry about it.

Hope all that info might help you out a bit. Just remember, keep your humidity up, and don't open the bator except in a real emergency!
 
Last edited:
Gypsy07, that was exactly the kind of post I was hoping for. Thank you so much for taking the time! I'll update everyone when something happens!!

Oh, and yes, I have a hygrometer inside, so no guess work! I'm using the cardboard cups, which I read about in a couple other threads, basically to just keep them from rolling around, and to give them something solid and comfy to hatch into. Also, apparently, it cuts down on the mess too
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