Wet Chick Needs to Dry

[TiaView]

My chicks are hatching!!! And I'm putting them into the brooder as they start walking around the incubator. But one is taking longer to dry and I'm wondering if i should just move it to the brooder. Is my humidity too high in the incubator, maybe? I have no way of telling what the humidity is...it's a TSC incubator (still air, no fan) and it just has two red removable caps to let out more humidity and heat if needed, I'm guessing....

 

[Kbagwell1]

Have you felt the chick to see if its actually wet? Sometimes I have chicks that have goo on them from the shell and aren't actually wet!! Hope this helps!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Sometimes they hatch sticky and still appear wet even though they are dry.

 

[TiaView]

Ok, thanks!
You can't tell I'm new at this, right?

 

[SlowMoneyFarm]

OK stupid ?? - how does one feel if they're dry without opening up the incubator? The hatching thread indicated don't open it under any circumstances until all eggs are done. I had some hatch Saturday and yesterday which I removed...then 2 died in the shell so I haven't opened it back up. There's still quite a few to go and I know they can live for a day but 2-3-4-??? days. Yes these were all set the same day.

 

[Kbagwell1]

I open my hatcher constantly!! I use a spray bottle filled with very warm water and spray all of the eggs every time I open it to avoid shrink wrapping! Hope this helps!

 

[SlowMoneyFarm]

Thanks - one of this morning's chicks was panting - moved over to brooder and eating already...but didn't want to lose more eggs. Fairly new to hatching - not to raising but want to hatch my own...so need new ones to do that.

 

[lutz123]

Aren't they supposed to be at least close to completely dry before pulling them out of the incubator? (Still new to hatching...sorry)

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
You can't.

Some people have brinsea incubators and they get back up to temp/humidity really fast. I have a hovabator, but when I have a lot of chicks hatch at once and my humidity spikes high, I'll open quickly and grab all the dry chicks out. When there's too many chicks in there, they knock the other eggs around.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I have done many successful hatches in my tabletop incubator. I now use a GQF Sportsman cabinet incubator and I can control the humidity.
I had to put a very wet sponge in my styrofoam incubator when I took out the turner and set the eggs for hatching to help bring up the humidity
Actually in the booklet that came with the incubator suggests that you leave the red caps out while you're hatching. Good luck and enjoy!!!