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I keep them in between 24 and 48 hours. Then if nobody else is pipping, I take them out to the brooder. Mostly because as someone else said, it keeps the hatcher cleaner if you still have eggs in there. I also grind their food for the first two weeks. I also have a feeder with full size chick starter in it, so they can mess with it if they want to. Then after two weeks I start mixing half and half in the "ground up food" feeder. Usually at two weeks they are fine eating just the full size chick starter, but I'm paranoid to just take out the ground up stuff. Also if I have some that are extra small, I keep the ground up food in longer.
I use my hova bator as the hatcher, and if you put ground up food in there, it gets into the teeny holes in the styrafoam and it's really hard to get it all out.
Oh, I forgot to add, when they are in the bator, it is SO fun to put their food in the lid of a small tupperware and then you tap the food with your finger and make bok bok noises. It's hilarious because they will ALL come running and mob your finger looking for the food!!! Once they go out to the brooder, they don't do this as much, I think because there is so much more interesting stuff to investigate and try to eat.
Like I said, it makes a huge mess though. I use that puffy, rubber mat stuff like you put under carpets to keep them from sliding in the bottom of the hatcher. It gives the chicks really good traction, and helps the eggs not roll around. But, the little holes let the powdered food fall into the styrafoam and it's so messy.
Thanks so much to everyone for the good advice. Water has been changed twice today and ground up food put in small dish. I took your advice and tapped my finger and called to her and she came running to check out my finger and the food. She seems to be doing well, running about and chirping for all to hear
I will keep her in the bator til tomorrow and then transfer her to the brooder, hopefully with some friends soon to follow
