August Hatch along?

[Jules929]

@Amiloo928 Great job!

 

[JBerman21]

Should I take the four hatched babies out of the incubator? I don’t want to mess up the temp or humidity, but they are crawling all over the remaining eggs. Two of the eggs I’m not worried about, because the pip is still toward the top and I can see a beak moving in them. One of them though, baby pipped at the wrong end, and that egg has gotten turned over by the others. The hole is facing the floor of the incubator now, and the chick is facing upside down in relation to the pip. Does this matter? I can still see the beak and it appears to be breathing, opening and closing its mouth.

Should I take the four hatched babies out of the incubator? I don’t want to mess up the temp or humidity, but they are crawling all over the remaining eggs. Two of the eggs I’m not worried about, because the pip is still toward the top and I can see a beak moving in them. One of them though, baby pipped at the wrong end, and that egg has gotten turned over by the others. The hole is facing the floor of the incubator now, and the chick is facing upside down in relation to the pip. Does this matter? I can still see the beak and it appears to be breathing, opening and closing its mouth.

I wouldn't take them out i know its hard not to but it can drop humidity too quickly causing others to become shrink wrapped

 

[Amiloo928]

I think you already mentioned, but are they Ameraucanas? They sure are cute!

They are Easter Eggers

 

[Amiloo928]

@Amiloo928 Great job!

Thank you!!

 

[Amiloo928]

I wouldn't take them out i know its hard not to but it can drop humidity too quickly causing others to become shrink wrapped

We left everybody in the bator until the last baby was completely free of the shell. Let it dry for a few minutes, then pulled the fully dried babies out, and left the others in to dry longer.

 

[Amiloo928]

All seven babies that made it to lockdown hatched perfectly These are the four that were dry and moved to the brooder.

We only had one out of the batch that never developed. I am super pleased with the results of our shipped eggs, first time incubating hatching experience. I can’t wait to see all my new Easter Egger babies grow up!!!

 

[Jules929]

So adorable!

 

[MichelleBelle]

OMG totally adorable! What type of incubator is that? I might want to get the same type since I've had such reliability issues with my Little Giant.

 

[JBerman21]

We left everybody in the bator until the last baby was completely free of the shell. Let it dry for a few minutes, then pulled the fully dried babies out, and left the others in to dry longer.

Awesome! Im glad you had a successful hatch! it never gets old

 

[Amiloo928]

OMG totally adorable! What type of incubator is that? I might want to get the same type since I've had such reliability issues with my Little Giant.

The incubator is the Harris Farms Nurture Right 360, purchased from Tractor Supply Company.

There’s an incredibly extensive thread about it here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/nurture-right-360-incubator-okay.1221033/

If you read reviews online, and even early posts in that thread, you will see complaints about an open fan and a seal. The company has since remodeled the incubator to remedy these design flaws, and no longer sells the older model. For those who do, (or did) have the older model, they send the parts for modification for free, and in some cases, depending on location, even offered to send a person out to install the modifications. They have incredible customer service reviews, and all the reviews post modification of the design have been amazing. My own included.

I absolutely LOVE that I could see my little eggs from every angle. I was able to shine a bright light through the side and monitor air cells daily from outside the bator, meaning I didn’t have to open it, releasing heat and humidity. This would probably only work with light colored or thin shelled eggs, as the results weren’t as stark as candling the eggs properly. Our eggs were very light blue, and we could see through most of them this way.

The 360° view also meant that I could monitor pips and cracks from all sides, even if the egg was facing the “back” of the bator. All I had to do was look through the other side. We didn’t have any problems with our hatch, whatsoever, but, knowing that I could see every egg from every angle meant I got to watch up close and personal for any that might have occurred.

Something else that I really liked about this bator is that because the chicks were able to see me from every angle, and like a paranoid mama hen, I was there for nearly every hatch, they all saw me immediately and now seem to have imprinted on me. When I come near them, or they hear my voice, they all scurry toward me.

This bator was extremely spot on with maintaining temps, I never had to adjust a thing, and maintaining humidity was a breeze, even when it fluctuated for me. We did have condensation accumulating inside the bator when I cranked it up to the % recommended in the instructions for lockdown (72%), however, it didn’t occur to me until after all the babies were hatched that our humidity problem was user errror.

We had the bator in the garage, and we have had warm summer rains here for the last three days, making the air all around significantly more muggy and humid. It didn’t even occur to us that the humidity outside the bator would impact the humidity inside that drastically.

With all that being said, it was *very* easy to adjust the humidity level throughout the lockdown process. I love that water can be added or subtracted from outside the bator, no need to open it up! The vent on top seems extremely basic and rudementary, but it is very easy to make even the slightest of adjustments. Because of the humid conditions in our garage during hatch, we kept the bator at a steady 68%, which was the highest we could get it without condensation building up inside. However, every time an egg hatched, humidity would spike up to about 72%, and condensation would briefly cover the bator. It cleared up within about 20-30 minutes after each hatch, and leveled itself out back to 68% with no interference necessary on my part.

I’m not sure how long chicks usually take to fully dry out, but ours took about 4-6 hours to fully fluff up inside the bator before being moved to the brooder.

This bator also has a hatch day countdown and candling light built in, which was very helpful for us first timers. I truly feel like this bator was designed for people like me and my family. It holds 22 eggs total, so small hatches in general, and it’s incridbly user friendly and fairly fool proof. The instructions are very detailed, but written simple enough to be understood clearly by someone who is brand new to incubating.

Now that I’ve rambled on and on, I’m sure you get the idea. We love the bator, it was extremely easy to use, and had fantastic results. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!

On a side note, being born is hard work. These babies are all tuckered out!