When to go into lockdown for shipped bantam eggs?

[romea]

I am currently incubating bantam eggs that were shipped to me... I put them into the incubator on the 12th just before noon (11:30 to be precise). Some people say this counts as day 0, others say this counts as day 1.

I am also unclear when they should go into lockdown... Again, I am getting conflicting information.
The well known author, Gail Damerow, apparently talks about bantam eggs hatching at day 19 or 20. The breeder, however, feels that since they were shipped, it will take longer.

Depending on how I count the days, tomorrow is either day 16 or day 17 of their incubation....
Should I stop the egg turner tomorrow morning but maybe leave the humidity at around 50% for another day? Or go into full lockdown mode?
I am so confused...

 

[Debbie292d]

Don't worry so much about how many days. There is no hard and fast rule about it. The last week of incubation is the least important for rotating eggs because they're larger now and won't get stuck.

I go 5 days when I can but for sure 4 days as silkies are known to hatch in 19 days, 20 days, and 21 days. I've hatched several hundred and the earliest was a pip in 18 days, and the longest was 23, both of those were rare.

Should I stop the egg turner tomorrow morning but maybe leave the humidity at around 50% for another day?

This would be fine.

Then after that, raise the humidity up to 65-70%.

Wishing you a great hatch!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where to start. I guess, counting days.

An egg does not have a full day's worth of development the instant you put it in. It takes 24 hours to get a day's worth of development. It seems intuitive to say "one" when you put them in but it doesn't work that way. You need to wait 24 hours before you say "one".

An easy way of checking your counting is to use a calendar. What day of the week did you put the eggs in? That's the day of the week that the 21 days are up. If you started them on a Monday they have had 21 days of development on a Monday.

Many eggs do not hatch right on 21 days. Whether they are from bantam of full-sized fowl it is not that unusual for some to hatch two days early or late. There are different things that might affect that: heredity, humidity, how and how long the eggs were stored before incubation started, and just differences in the eggs. A very common cause is average incubation temperature. If the average temperature during incubation is a bit high they can be early. If it is low, they can be late. I do not know of anything related to shipping that might cause them to hatch early or late.

It doesn't matter if they are bantam of full-sized, they can be early or late. My eggs from full-sized fowl often hatch two full days early whether under a broody hen or in my calibrated incubator. I think that is mostly due to heredity.

You want to go into lockdown (stop turning and raise the humidity) before any external pip. That is generally after 18 days of incubation in case some pip early. If you want to go into lockdown a day early, that should not hurt anything. They should have lost enough moisture by then that they can hatch and you do not need to turn them. It will probably make you feel better and should not hurt the hatch. But be patient and do not do anything dramatic like tossing the eggs if they don't hatch early. Give them as much time as you would eggs from a full-sized hen.

Good luck with your hatch. Let us know how it goes.

 

[romea]

Don't worry so much about how many days. There is no hard and fast rule about it. The last week of incubation is the least important for rotating eggs because they're larger now and won't get stuck.

I go 5 days when I can but for sure 4 days as silkies are known to hatch in 19 days, 20 days, and 21 days. I've hatched several hundred and the earliest was a pip in 18 days, and the longest was 23, both of those were rare.


This would be fine.

Then after that, raise the humidity up to 65-70%.

Wishing you a great hatch!

Thank you - also for the encouragement!!
Admittedly, it's been a while since I last had eggs in the incubator (I relied mostly on my broodies for the past decade ).

 

[romea]

Where to start. I guess, counting days.

An egg does not have a full day's worth of development the instant you put it in. It takes 24 hours to get a day's worth of development. It seems intuitive to say "one" when you put them in but it doesn't work that way. You need to wait 24 hours before you say "one".

An easy way of checking your counting is to use a calendar. What day of the week did you put the eggs in? That's the day of the week that the 21 days are up. If you started them on a Monday they have had 21 days of development on a Monday.

Many eggs do not hatch right on 21 days. Whether they are from bantam of full-sized fowl it is not that unusual for some to hatch two days early or late. There are different things that might affect that: heredity, humidity, how and how long the eggs were stored before incubation started, and just differences in the eggs. A very common cause is average incubation temperature. If the average temperature during incubation is a bit high they can be early. If it is low, they can be late. I do not know of anything related to shipping that might cause them to hatch early or late.

It doesn't matter if they are bantam of full-sized, they can be early or late. My eggs from full-sized fowl often hatch two full days early whether under a broody hen or in my calibrated incubator. I think that is mostly due to heredity.

You want to go into lockdown (stop turning and raise the humidity) before any external pip. That is generally after 18 days of incubation in case some pip early. If you want to go into lockdown a day early, that should not hurt anything. They should have lost enough moisture by then that they can hatch and you do not need to turn them. It will probably make you feel better and should not hurt the hatch. But be patient and do not do anything dramatic like tossing the eggs if they don't hatch early. Give them as much time as you would eggs from a full-sized hen.

Good luck with your hatch. Let us know how it goes.

Thank you for spelling things out for me - I needed that!

I'm trying hard to stay in the Goldilocks zone of 37.5 (99.5 F) and whenever the temperature creeps above 37.7/37.8 (99.8 - 100 F), heading into the 38 zone (100.4 F), I get antsy and start to down-regulate. They probably therefore average around 37.3/37.4 (99.1-99.3).
I way I understand things is that heat is more damaging for an embryo than exposing it to slightly cooler temps. Beides, I don't mind if they take a bit longer.

Rest assured that I would also never toss out an egg without being 100% certain that the chick has died.