Counting Days
MY WAY- (THE RIGHT WAY)
Now, I am normally not conceeded enough to think that my way is the only right way to do something. Especially in the hatching world. Many people have many different methodologies and philiosophies that work for them, and that's great. No one is wrong or right as long as what they are doing is working for them and their chicks. But when it comes to counting the days, I will argue until I am blue in the face because to me, logic has to win out.
Generally if you set on a Monday you should expect them to hatch on a Monday three weeks later. You DO NOT count the day you set the eggs as day one. The eggs do not have a days worth of incubation until 24 hours after they have set. If you set your eggs 10am on Monday morning Day ONE STARTS at 10 am Tuesday morning. Day TWO STARTS 10 am Wednesday morning.
The arguements...oh the arguments..... and yes, I have the logical rebuff for these arguments....want to hear some?
I like to use the example of when a baby is born. It is not a day old the day it is born. It is not a day old until 24 hours later. I heard this argument recently: "Well what is it then? Zero days old?" My Answer: "Yes!!!! A baby is zero days at birth. 12 hours after it is born it is 12 hours old. 18 hours after it is born it is 18 hours old....it's not hard to see where this going. When it is (excuse the use of "it" I know I am not fond of using "it" in relation to babies,) 24 hours old then it will officially be a day old. My rebuff from this person:"Well if that's true then my birthday would change every year, it would be a day earlier each year." My head rebuffed with "You obviously don't understand what birthday means." My mouth rebuffed with the poliet explanation of: "A person's birthday is just that -the day they were born. That day will never change. (Unless you are a leap year baby.) When you are born you are zero old. One year from that day and that hour-on your birthday you are one year old. Meaning you were born exactly one year ago. You are not one year plus one day- you are one year zero days old." He did not reply to that arguement.
Another arguement had been in play though. "If you set them before noon then you can count the day you set as day one because they've had 12 hours incubation by the time the day is over." Really???? I have yet to figure out how 12 hours of incubation equals 24 hours of growth. I can't find any logic behind this at all. It's still only 12 hours. (or 16 or 18..depending on how soon before noon they were set.) My rebuff: "If I eat luch at noon, at midnight my leftovers do not become a day old....they are still only 12 hours old!"
24 hours after they are set they are at one full day of incubation. 27 hours after they are set they are at one full day of incubation plus 3 hours. At 48 hours they are at 2 full days of incubation....and so it goes...
Candling Eggs (Incubation from a more Liberal Hatcher)
Have I mentioned that I am a candling addict? Oh, and there are many of my kind out there. We just have to see that development, we have to know what's going on in there.
What is Candling?
I spot check every night. You heard me right. Every night from about day 3-4 on until lockdown. I usually look at 4-5 eggs in dfferent spots of the incubator. This gives me my candling fix, allows me to check air cells and development. An egg that looks behind in development may alert me to an unknown cold spot in the incubator.
Checking air cells is the eggs allows us to monitor their growth, therefore pointing us in the right direction for humidity control. You can read more about this in my post: "Throw Away Those Incubator Manuals!! (Understanding and Controlling humidity)"
Marking your air cells:
At days 7/14/18 It is best to "mark" the air cells. All this is, is tracing the air cell. I use a pencil. Some people use sharpie markers. When you mark the air cells you can compare growth and it will give you an idea of where the chick will pip at hatch time. (They usually pip around the lowest end of the air cell's "dip".)
Bottom line is, if your hands are clean and you are gentle and timely, candling can be quite beneficial as well as educational. Of course if you talk probabilities, yes, the more you handle the higher the chance that something can happen. If you aren't picking them up-you can't drop them. (And that happens more than you'd think. Knock on wood-I haven't had this happen.) If you aren't picking them up there's less chance that bacteria on your hands can penetrate the shell's pores. With that being said, as a candling addict I have been having some awesome rates,)