2 Questions....

[paulandashia]

Please pardon my ignorance.
Although I have ducks and chickens, I aquired them as adults, and I am trying to learn as I go.
I have never hatched any eggs, and am not planning on it anytime soon, so I know pretty much NOTHING about it.

I do however have 2 questions (which I hope will not anger anyone for me asking).

1) - WHAT in the world is a "Lockdown"?

And

2) - Why can't you help chicks hatch to get them out of the shell faster?

 

[The Chicken People]

Lock down is day 18 thru hatch when you dont open the bator for any reason!
And helping is a personal decision but recommended not due to chicks dying from bleeding out or too weak to survive!

 

[panner123]

Lockdown is the last 3 days of incubation, you shouldn't open the incubator.

If you try to help a chick out of the shell you stand a very good chance of killing it.

 

[paulandashia]

Got it. I forgot that even chicks have an umbilical cord. DUH to me!

Why however can't you open the incubator for the last 3 days?
What if some chicks hatch, and others have not yet?

A friend of mine is hatching, and she has had some chicks hatch at 20 days, and others at 23 days.
She won't answer the phone now when I tried calling her to clarify, but now you got me curious. LoL
Should the chicks that hatch early be left in the incubator for 3 days?

 

[Gypsy07]

The helping thing: I think people on their first hatch sometimes just don't appreciate that a normal chick can take a full day or more to hatch, with long rest breaks along the way. So they mistake a healthy chick resting halfway through hatching for a chick in difficulty on the point of death, and rush in to 'help' where it really isn't needed, inadvertently doing more harm than good in the process.

More experienced hatchers are better able to tell when a chick is genuinely having difficulties, and some prefer not to help because the mother hen would never help a chick out. I think the reasoning is that a chick that isn't strong enough to hatch by itself will always be a poor specimen, genetically speaking, and one that many breeders would not want to breed from.

 

[abanjaf]

Quote:
Not necessarily. There is also what I call "user error". I had my second batch of babies hatch while at work. I returned to 8 fuzzbutts and two other eggs that had pipped. The water wells were COMPLETELY dry! Don't understand it, had filled them up that morning. The two eggs that had pipped made no further progress that day. I finally decided to rescue them. Well, what I found was that both chicks were literally cemented to the inside of their shells and could not move at all. I hatched both chicks out without any problems (no bleeding, yolk completely absorbed). Had to give one of them a full bath to remove all the egg shell pieces from its little body. I feel fully confident that the reason that these two did not hatch was completely MY fault, no humidity. These chicks are now a month old and you can't tell which ones I assisted from the rest. I know that its risky business to assist with a hatch and that you can do more harm than good, however if I can help I will. Think about all the mothers and babies that would have died without the assistance of an experienced surgeon to perform a Cesarean section. I realize that chickens aren't people and that I'm comparing apples and oranges. I am not in the habit of intervening, but on occasion I do. I love life and I love my little peeps

 

[paulandashia]

That's AWESOME!
I mean, that you rescued them.

I would never brave it, primarily because I am such a Chicken Do-Do, but I think it's Admirable!
How can you tell the difference between a chick that needs help and one that does not?

 

[Gypsy07]

Yup, that's awesome!

Abanjaf - the reasons I gave for some people thinking it's best not to help a hatch were assuming that incubating conditions were ideal. Of course in your situation (user error, LOL!) the chicks weren't in trouble due to any inherent weakness of their own and on discovering a situation like the one you describe, I'm thinking that even the sternest 'Let nature take its course' proponents would have done exactly the same as you did. Chuckling at the picture of you having to bath a tiny chick! Glad they're both doing good now.