Seventeen days ago I put 24 eggs from a friend in the incubator. There are a dozen polish chicken eggs and a dozen easter eggers (blue/green eggs). I checked my calendar and tomorrow night they go into lock down.
What’s lock down?
Eggs need turned several times a day. These eggs are on my automatic egg turner so they get turned periodically though out the day and I don’t have to worry about it. On day 18 I’ll lay them down, decrease the temp and increase the humidity. Then, I’ll wait for the chicks to emerge, hopefully by Saturday or Sunday.
This is the most dangerous part of the process for the growing chick. At this point, it’s transitioning to breathing air through the air cell (which is refreshed through the egg shell/membrane) and will use its egg tooth to “pip” the egg and then “unzip” itself by pecking around the top of the egg to open it. During peak hatching it’ll be like a veritable popcorn popper of chicks as they free themselves from the egg, seemingly in one burst. POP! Hatched!
I’ll share pictures next week once I see what we have. Wish me luck!
