A little help - early Hatchers AS IN 9 DAYS Early! Help!

[Aschuchert]

We got 2 dozen eggs from friends and friends of friends, and tonight while heading to bed I noticed piping on 1 if not 2 eggs. These eggs must have been incubating under hens.
Problem is we still have them in the egg turner.
This is our first hatch so we are really unprepared to handle a sudden hatch. We just recorded our 12th day in the incubator.
Afraid to open the incubator and shrink wrap the chicks - we live in the desert and we have about 3% humidity this time of year.
Afraid to leave them in and then have them break their necks hatching.

What now - thank you all for any advice you can give.

 

[MINDANAO DAVE]

Just make sure the humidity is is good inside the incubator. I leave mine in the turner never had a problem. Just watch closely and make sure once the top of the egg is loose or off they can get out okay. If not just take the egg and lay it on it's side and the chick should roll right out. I hatch 96 at a time.

 

[ChuskaMtns]

Bring the incubator to the bathroom, close the door. Run the shower and sink to hot water only until it steams up the room. Open the incubator and remove the turner.

 

[getaclue]

Do what ChuskaMtns advised, and it should be ok. Good luck!

 

[MINDANAO DAVE]

Before I would shut the incubator down and take out the turner I would put a wash cloth in warm water and lay them over the eggs then you should be fine. If you shut down and remove the turner with the other eggs you take a good chance of losing your other eggs.

 

[Pyxis]

We got 2 dozen eggs from friends and friends of friends, and tonight while heading to bed I noticed piping on 1 if not 2 eggs. These eggs must have been incubating under hens.
Problem is we still have them in the egg turner.
This is our first hatch so we are really unprepared to handle a sudden hatch. We just recorded our 12th day in the incubator.
Afraid to open the incubator and shrink wrap the chicks - we live in the desert and we have about 3% humidity this time of year.
Afraid to leave them in and then have them break their necks hatching.

What now - thank you all for any advice you can give.

I open the incubator all the time during a hatch. I 'd be nervous to take it to another room and unplug it to do so - I'd be too worried I'd drop the whole darn thing on the way, lol. I also would avoid putting a washcloth right over the eggs - I've actually seen that chill hatchlings, which you don't want, and putting it over the pip could make it very hard for them to breathe.

I would just quickly open the incubator to add more water to get the humidity up to lockdown levels, and then if there's room take the eggs out of the turner and lay them down on their sides in the incubator to finish hatching. If there's not room, just unplug the turner while they hatch.

They can still hatch upright like that - I've had chicks I accidentally left upright, in a turner that's still turning, with no added humidity, hatch just fine because I forgot the hatch date So I wouldn't worry too much about your two.

Also, candle the rest of them to check for development and internal pips - you don't need any more surprises!

 

[Aschuchert]

Wow, thanks that sounds reassuring. ok I'm going to let them (possibly 2) keep going and keep the humidity up. We just spent an hour getting the broader ready, yeah luckily we had most items already.
Now the cheering begins

 

[BlueBaby]

I'm right here in AZ. too, so I am close by if you need more help. The turner will have to be removed as the hatched chicks legs could be caught up in it. You could work quickly doing the removal of the turner by having egg cartons handy and ready to put the unhatched eggs in. Remove any hatched chicks into a small container. Remove the turner and set it aside. Place the chicks and the unhatched chicks back into the brooder, leaving the eggs in the carton for now. Put lid back on the incubator, and bring it back up to the temp and humidity needed. Then quickly candle the eggs in the cartons to see the development, laying each egg down inside of the incubator.

 

[Aschuchert]

We took everyone's advice and distilled it into the easy solutions based on my clutzy limbs and handy items. We removed 2 trays, 12 ACTUAL fresh eggs in rotating trays. 8 remaining late development eggs on bumpy, towels to help collect egg parts, towels in empty cups to lessen accidents.
Here's the latest, we have 5 happy chicks, 2 eggs discarded -no development, 5 candled with some development, and 2 new chick-parents with 5+ hrs sleep in 2 days. Our gracious egg donor admitted to possibly mistaking giving us mixed eggs, but we are excited by the growing flock, will post a pic when we have them it in brooder tonight. Thx all for your wisdom!

 

[Aschuchert]

Here's the 5 early chicks happily exploring their brooder environs pic. We think they are a mix of Cochin, Blue Marans, and a cross of EE and Wht Splash Marans.