when incubating what day is start day in a 21 day incubation?

[adobechicks]

I know this is probably common sense but...... I am ordering eggs. Should be here thursday. so do i start the countdown from thursday or from the day they were layed?????

 

[blueberrychickens]

If you set them in the am, then that is day 1. If you set them in the pm, then that next day is day 1.

 

[adobechicks]

so it doesn't matter when they were laid? thats pretty cool !!!!

 

[Arielle]

The eggs are in stasis-- they are in a waiting stage until the temp is high enough to get the embyo growing. Over 85 degrees triggers growth. Of course 99.5 is optimal.

Remember to let the eggs rest and set them upright. Many opinions on this. One person claiming sucess is to set them upright and not turn for 5 days.


I like to set at midnight to keep the count easy. If not possible, pick a time that works for you. Good luck.

 

[adobechicks]

that is so cool !!!! We have an amazing creator thanks for the advice......

 

[Coop de Grille]

Set them upright? I am new so please help me out here, does that mean pointed end up or down? I just set 16 eggs pointed end down, should I turn them? I have an automatic egg turner in my bator.

 

[adobechicks]

are you saying set them out ...like out of the bator pointed end up before putting them in the bator? how long should I set them out for? I am new to and I really want some hatched eggs. so any advice is great!!!!

 

[blueberrychickens]

leave them large end up in the egg carton for several hours (6-12 is good I think) out side of the bator. It lets them "settle" from all the jostling the post office puts them thru. Some people will let them sit a full 24 hrs, some don't let them sit at all. Some turn on the turner right away, some not till day 5. My first time hatching shipped eggs, I let mine rest in the carton for about 6 hrs, kinda to let them settle & to also let them come up to room temps before putting in the bator. Turned on the turner the next morning. Out of 15 shipped eggs, 11 hatched, 1 died in the shell, 3 did nothing.
Good luck w/ your hatch!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you set them in the am, then that is day 1. If you set them in the pm, then that next day is day 1.

I disagree with this, although I do not consider this all that bad to go by. It will usually work. Incubating is not an exact science and as long as you get the timing fairly close, you'll be OK. You can get quite a bit of variance in how many days it actually takes them to hatch.

An egg does not have 24 hours worth of development 2 seconds or even 2 hours after it is set in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for an egg to have a days worth of development. In theory, it takes 21 days of development for chicken eggs to hatch. That's just theory though. There are many things that can affect the actual time it takes, such as egg size, humidity, heredity, and how they are stored. The big one though is average incubating temperature. If the average incubating temperature is a bit high, they can hatch two or even three days early. If it is a bit low, they can be late.

Lockdown should be after 18 days of development. Getting the timing for lockdown exactly right is not that critical. The main thing is to try to get them locked down and the humidity raised before they start to pip. That's where the 18 days comes in. You are usually pretty safe if you lock down after 18 days of development, but missing this by several hours is not really a bad thing. Like I said, it is not an exact science.

One easy way to tell when chicken eggs are supposed to hatch is that the day of the week you set them is the day of the week they should hatch. For example, if you set them on a Tuesday, in theory they should hatch on a Tuesday. But remember, that is only theory. In reality they could easily hatch anywhere between Sunday and Thursday. I think it is important to realize actual hatch day can vary by this amount. I've seen posts on here where people have trashed eggs after exactly 21 days and found out they had living chicks in those eggs. And if you don't count the days right, that is even worse.

The air cell should be in the rounded end. You want that air cell on top during incubation. So store them pointy side down, round side up, so the air cell stays on top.