Am I screwed? Hatching right now.....*updated with pics*

[Josh45640]

I set 41 eggs on March 30th. They started chipping through last night. The first two just busted a little hole out and are chirping. The third one was out of the egg within minutes of making the little hole. I went to sleep and woke up this morning to find that the power went out while I was sleeping and the temp was down to 89. The power came back on and the temps are climbing back up now. I still only have one chick and it seems to be doing fine. There are aeveral more eggs that just have little 1/8" holes but nothing else. You can see movement in them and you can hear them chirping, but they arent really trying to progress. Is this normal? Im a first timer and this is a cheapo LG still air but the temps have stayed stable (until now) and they have been in an auto turner until a few days ago. I tried candeling them around day 11 but my candleing skills must not be very good because they all looked the same to me.

I also have a hovabator 2362n with 12 giant ble cochin eggs and 6 mille fluer ducle/ golden sebright mix eggs that is on day 8. I dont know how much they were affected by the outage though because the temps were normal when I woke up and checked them.

How long should I give the ones that are hatching? How long should I leave them locked down before I get the ones that make it out? I know that you arent supposed to help them out, but would it hurt to try if they dont make it out in a day or so anyway?

 

[WriterofWords]

Give them time to warm back up before you try and do anything. It will take them longer to warm up than the air in the incubator, they should start moving around more and go back to trying to hatch when their temperatures even out. They still have plenty of time if you set them March 30. Make sure their humidity is high enough so they don't get shrink wrapped while they wait.

 

[Josh45640]

How do I know if the humidity is ok? When I took them out of the turner, I filled the water trenches up before putting the eggs back in. Would it hurt if I opened it up and gave them a light mist with a spray bottle? Would it help if I put a heat lamp on the incubator to help warm it up?

 

[TriciaHowe]

Nope. They will be fine. Just walk away and leave them alone LOL!

 

[Josh45640]

lol, ok. Im gonna go mushroom hunting or scout for tomorrows turkey hunt or something. That way I wont be tempted. Thanks!

 

[Josh45640]

Ok, another question... Will it hurt to open the incubator during the hatching process? The two that have already hatched are making quite a stir. There is atleast one egg that was starting to hatch but has been rolled over by the other chicks so the hole is now on the bottom. Will this stop it from being able to hatch? Should I open the incubator and roll it back over, remove the dry chick and egg shells? Am I worrying too much? lol

 

[TriciaHowe]

Nope. Won't hurt them at bit. Leave them alone....Aren't you supposed to be hunting turkeys or something right now?!?

 

[Peepfreak59]

Hi, I open mine up each time a chick hatches and put them right into the brooder, I have been having good percentages. Also I agree with the others, walk away, I have had chicks take a day or so to arrive. Good luck!!

 

[Josh45640]

Wont hurt them to open it or wont hurt them to have the hole on the bottom of the egg? I know I should be out of the house to forget about it for now, but it started raining....

I think next time, I am going to go with less eggs for more room and use the cartons to hatch to keep them from rolling around too much.

 

[Josh45640]

Peepfreak, we must have been typing at the same time. So youre saying that it wont hurt to open it up to remove chicks as they dry to create more room in the incubator? Right now theyre kind of crowded. Id say its going to get a lot worse as more hatch too.