After hatch

[teamsunbelt]

The learning center says to take out chicks 24 hours after they hatch, or up to 48.

At what point can I open a window and pull out day old chicks with out harming the others?

 

[Lady EE]

maybe day 23.

 

[cmom]

I take mine out as soon as they hatch with their shell and then put them in a brooder box.
First I put them in here and let them dry.

This is one of the brooder boxes I put the chicks in.

These are some Pheasants I hatched.

After the chicks have gotten their legs working, I put them in my brooder cabinet. I separate the chicks either
by breed or if I'm hatching eggs for other people the chicks get separated to where they are going.

Here is a pic of some chicks from one of my last hatches going to a new home.

Edited for spelling

 

[bikerchic]

What kind of trays do you have in your brooder? I love the set up!

 

[Gypsy07]

X 100!!! it's like the production line chicken factory. LOL!

You can take chicks out straight away or leave them in the bator for up to 72 hours if need be. If everybody hatches all at once you can go in as soon as the last one's kicked out of the shell, basically. But if you have some still hatching and/or some who haven't even started hatching yet then you need to be careful, as opening the bator and causing the humidity to drop can make problems for the ones still to hatch. It all depends on how experienced you are with your own individual bator set-up and how confident you are about being able to keep your humidity up and not harming other chicks.

Personally, I like to leave my chicks in the bator till they're dried off and fluffed up, which is usually about 24-36 hours. If I have unpipped eggs, I'm happy opening the bator and taking out the fluffed up chicks. But if I have eggs in there which have pipped, I try not to do it, as I don't see the point in taking unnecessary chances. But if I DO have to do it, i.e. if I have eggs constantly pipping and some chicks that have been hatched for over 48 hours, I know I can go in quickly and 99.99% of the time it won't affect the hatching chicks at all. I've got loads of experience hatching chicken eggs so I'm happy to bend the rules with them a little bit. But if I was hatching ducklings (which I've only done twice before) or something like guinea fowl or peafowl which I have NO experience of, I'd follow the official advice to the letter.

So, as with just about every other question about hatching, the answer is: "Hmmmm, I guess it depends, really...."

 

[Ridgerunner]

Incubator temperature drop when opening the incubator should not be a big deal as long as you don't leave it open for really long periods of time. Most incubators recover that heat pretty quickly and it takes a while for internal egg or chick temperatures to cool off enough that it is a problem.

The main risk is that you might shrink wrap some of the chicks that have pipped but have not finished hatching. The key is that you might, not that you absolutely will each and every time. There are a whole lot of different things that affect it. I have shrink wrapped chicks before by opening the incubator, but it was only a very few chicks. Usually it does not shrink wrap most of them. But there are some people that have reported completely losing a hatch because of opening the incubator during lockdown. It is not something that happens each and every time, 100% without fail, but something that can happen, so most of us advise against it. However, sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

When can you pull some out without harming the unhatched ones? I don't know. It depends on a whole lot of different things. What stage of hatching are they in, how high is the initial humidity in the incubator, how long is it open, is there a draft blowing across it when it is open, what is the humidity in the room outside the incubator, how fast the incubator recovers the huimidity, what type of incubator is it, and who knows what other things. Different people have different conditions and different set-ups. Some seem to never have a problem. Someof us occasionally do. There is seldom any one right answer for all of us.

Chicks can easily go three days without food or water after hatch, since they absorb the egg yolk. That's why they can be shipped in the mail. The safest time to open the incubator is when all the chicks have hatched that are going to. Usually that is pretty easy to tell. They quit hatching. But sometimes that can drag out for a couple of days.

Good luck!

 

[teamsunbelt]

Here is where I am at now.

One hatched yesterday around 4pm, one last night. The next two hatched today around 3pm and maybe 7. The temp has been up and down a little today. The humidity got below 70%, so I added a little.

The temp and humidity seem to be good, maybe a little high on the humidity.

The two older are giving the two younger a fit. I have a couple more with pips, but there are 20 more eggs in there. I can not see them all. I do not want to open up and shrink wrap any.

I have an LG with the windows. I will have to get them out tomorrow night anyway, I will be gone on Friday all day and night. I can open up a window and get out the oldest ones, and leave the rest in.

If my humidity stays a little high and my temps are stable, I think I am going to leave everything like it is until tomorrow evening. Pull out the oldest and put them in the bator with food, water and heat.

What do the pros think?????

 

[cmom]

I take my chicks out and their shells. I have a Sportsman cabinet incubator I incubate in and some Lgs and Hova-Bators I use to hatch in.

 

[misslady]

Quote:
Love your brooder cmom! Beautiful setup!

 

[cmom]

Thanks...

I go into lockdown tomorrow.