Chicks hatching!! So excited! When should I remove from incubator?

[laurenk16]

I am SO EXCITED!! I am hatching eggs in my 6th-grade classroom. As you can see in the photos, I had 3 hatch overnight, 1 hatch just now, and several others have pipped. The 3 that hatched over night are getting pretty dry and fluffy already. Should I remove them from the incubator yet? I do not want to harm the chicks that have pipped by opening the incubator but I also read to remove the chicks when fluffy. I leave school around 3:50 and won't be back until tomorrow morning so I also want to make sure I do the right thing for the chicks. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[HappyClucker7]

I would leave the chicks inside until the others have hatched. They've absorbed their yolks, so they don't need any food or water right away.

 

[laurenk16]

I would leave the chicks inside until the others have hatched. They've absorbed their yolks, so they don't need any food or water right away.

What if the others don't hatch by the time I leave though? Still wait?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

What if the others don't hatch by the time I leave though? Still wait?

No. Get the chicks out before you leave. They will be happier in the brooder.

 

[laurenk16]

No. Get the chicks out before you leave. They will be happier in the brooder.

Thank you! Will the eggs that have pipped be ok if I open the incubator super quickly to get the dry chicks out?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Thank you! Will the eggs that have pipped be ok if I open the incubator super quickly to get the dry chicks out?

Yes it will be fine. Just fill up your waters in the incubator.

 

[DavidReaves]

I hope your hatch went well. I had 19 eggs in the incubator. I found that the humidity dropped for only a few seconds to remove eggshells and dry chicks. In my environment, they took about 6-8 hours to get dry and "fluffy looking." I slipped eggshells out when they got knocked close to the edge of the incubator. There was a lot of traffic even with only 4-5 chicks hatched! They were not quite as frantic for space with shells out. At one point there were 10 chicks at once. They would have hardly had any room to stand if the big pieces of eggshell weren't removed. Even with the incubator open for about a minute to get the dry chicks out, the temp and humidity were recovered in less than two minutes.