chicks in incubator-heads touching element!!

[shellybean40]

I have 6 little wet chicks in my Little Giant incubator. They are knocking the eggs around like crazy, which I have come to terms with. But now, they are standing up really tall and their little heads are touching the heating element!!! I am watching and wincing every few seconds.

 

[FenDruadin]

Yeah, they'll do that. And frankly, I don't like it. I take ducklings out of the incubator after I have had five or six hatch. They are nuts on the other eggs, and they get themselves into all kinds of trouble.

Procedure: I up the humidity in the incubator as high as it will go by adding hot water through a tube. I place a basket for ducklings and a bag for trash next to the bator. I open it and quickly but carefully (don't rush!) remove the ducklings to the basket and the major bits of debris to the trash bag. I don't stress and get everything, but the major bits. If there are eggs I've decided to help, I remove them at this time too. Then I close the bator.

Place the ducklings in the brooder, trash in the trash, then help whatever eggs I'm helping.

I've had birds in the bator cause damage to other eggs, so this is a compromise that works for me. Good luck.

 

[FenDruadin]

Oops--forgot to add. If they are still wet, I place them in a "recovery brooder" separate from the main one, so they don't get trampled by the older babies. You can either use a smaller box inside the big one, placed under the same brood lamp, or if you have a spare brood lamp you can place them in their own small box with a lamp. Measure the temp in the recovery box to make sure it's not too hot (95-102 is good).

Good luck!