what does lockdown mean exactly when incubating eggs

[clarkston_mike]

New to this and I keep reading people saying they put their eggs into lockdown...not sure what that means exactly

 

[sulco]

ED: It means to keep hands-off until they hatch.

 

[clarkston_mike]

At what stage or day do you lock down

 

[Goblnfvr]

It is from day 18 of the incubatiion to hatching.
This is when you don't turn the eggs anymore and you increase the humidity in the incubator to roughly 65-70%.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
x2

After lockdown you shouldn't open the incubator either or you'll loose too much humidity.

 

[cmom]

On day 18 if you have a turner you would take the eggs out of the turner, take the turner out and lay the eggs in the bottom of the incubator and raise your humidity to around 70% by filling the reservoirs in the bottom of the incubator. That is lockdown. Most people will not open the incubator during the last three days while the eggs are hatching. What kind of incubator do you have?

 

[MamaMarcy]

CR*P! are the reservoirs supposed to be DRY till lockdown??

 

[glowgirl]

Oh dear, I have been keeping my troughs full the whole time. I hope I didn't ruin the hatch!

 

[cmom]

Quote:
Depends on the humidity in your incubator, you may need to add a little water. I try to keep my humidity around 35% during incubation and raise it to around 70% during lockdown.

 

[MamaMarcy]

I have a still air incubator. (LG) I've kept the troughs full this whole time but have had severala early losses and one 4 days before hatch. I wonder if that is why? For my first htch yesterday (successful) I added some paper towels folded up with water on them to increase humidity for her hatch. I also made a mistake (beginner error?) of having eggs at all different ages at the same time so lockdown has been interrupted for turning (manual)...I did keep it shut from pip to hatch though.