Removing chicks before they are dry in incubator ?

[ChickenTenderKesha]

It’s my first time hatching eggs. It’s in someone else’s incubator who didn’t give me many instructions when incubating. Besides fill the water up and turn the eggs daily.

I’ve had a few chicks hatch successfully but then this morning one hatched and then drowned an hour later while I was allowing it to dry off before moving it to the brooder. I had left the room to hopefully be able to leave to do laundry and then came back to a deceased chick with its head submerged in the water.

I read in another thread on here sponges could be used in the water trough inside the incubator and I’m definitely thinking that if I incubate eggs in the future, that I will definitely be doing that instead of leaving it open for this risk again.

I’m mainly wondering if there’s a problem with removing the chick before it’s fully dry? If there is, could maybe towelling it off and then placing it in the brooder with the other chicks, would that be okay to do as well? I have 9 more eggs to hatch and I don’t have the means to cut up a bunch of sponges currently and stuff them in there during chicks pipping/zipping.

 

[JustBabyMargo]

There’s nothing wrong with removing chicks before they’ve fully dried, and they will likely dry even faster in their brooder. I would pull the chicks and put them in their brooder (without toweling them off).

 

[ChickenTenderKesha]

There’s nothing wrong with removing chicks before they’ve fully dried, and they will likely dry even faster in their brooder. I would pull the chicks and put them in their brooder (without toweling them off).

Thank you for your quick reply

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Very sorry to read you lost a chick like that

 

[ChickenTenderKesha]

Very sorry to read you lost a chick like that

Thank you. It’s been a tough morning for me with this happening but I have more babies hatching that need me. Baby #6 will be buried later this evening

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Have you managed to change things so no more can get into the water?

 

[ChickenTenderKesha]

Have you managed to change things so no more can get into the water?

I don’t have any sponges laying around and I’m too nervous to leave them alone with two on the brink of hatching currently.

I’ll be putting them in the brooder once they hatch like mentioned above to hopefully prevent anything from happening to the final 9 chicks.

This incubator isn’t mine or else I’d try to find a full time solution that doesn’t involve sponges that will eventually need to be replaced

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

How is the incubator set up as what if a chick hatches when you are not watching the incubator? Sometimes they can hatch pretty quick. I know I’ve gone off to bed with nothing hatched and got up the next to a lot. Don’t think that I’m trying to pry but just wouldn’t want you to go through any more heart break of them drowning. Maybe we could help you with a solution to prevent the drowning.

 

[FunClucks]

Give us a picture of your setup, including where the chick drowned. We might could help with a temporary solution. I have some ideas for you, but without pics it's hard to know if they might work.

Sorry you lost your chick. I lost a chick once due to poor brooder setup, and I still feel bad about it. Unfortunately, sometimes things happen, we just have to learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[ChickenTenderKesha]

How is the incubator set up as what if a chick hatches when you are not watching the incubator? Sometimes they can hatch pretty quick. I know I’ve gone off to bed with nothing hatched and got up the next to a lot. Don’t think that I’m trying to pry but just wouldn’t want you to go through any more heart break of them drowning.

I’ve had 5 hatch successfully already and woke up to two of them basically fully dried and just chilling in the incubator this morning. It’s just odd that this one happened to be the one that struggled with this issue. It pipped and zipped rather quickly and was constantly on it back when I had seen it hatch initially. I had to help it keep its head out of the water trough a few times right after hatch actually now that I think about it. I do wonder why it had been on its back a lot..

It’s currently 2pm and it is day 22 for the eggs today and I’m waiting on 3 to externally pip. The other 6 have been pipped either yesterday late night or earlier this morning. I’m hoping they will all hatch today before I have to sleep by like 12am the lates. If that’s not possible, I will be going out to buy some sponges when my partner gets off work in a handful of hours from now and cut up the sponges to fit the water trough.

I don’t think you are prying no worries on that front! I know you are trying to prevent any further heartaches with this happening a second time