Day 18 close, egg carton or lay flat any sugg.

[Suellyn]

Was just while in the 'bator resting up from the hatch, kept an eye out for pecking at it, but nobody did... Mainly just rested & flopped around a bit; I put everyne in the brooder by the time they perked up.
But, yes, if going to leave in 'bator for a while, would def watch out for styro picking!!
One other word of caution; doing it this way also raised the level of the floor by 1/2 inch... depending on depth of your bator & height of your chicks you may have to watch that they don't burn lil' heads on the heating element above them... However, I would assume this is also a concern using "egg carton method", egg cartons are even higher.

 

[halo]

I used the carton a couple of times and liked how much neater it seemed to be, but I also lost one when it pipped and zipped at the wrong end. Ive gone back to just laying them in the hatcher. I havent found the others rolling them around making any difference in them hatching. The carton also took up a lot of room in the hatcher, I thought. They pip and zip no matter which way they are laying.

 

[noriko]

I think the new born babies(just hatched ones) are still too small to peck & eat them. But, I heard the same story that "my chickens love to eat the styrofoam. Are they safe to eat?" or sometihing like that. (From Japanese chicken site.) The answer was "that's gonna be Ok. They dont eat whatever they can't eat." But, I still watch the chickens with styrofoam, though. That's another good info. for me anyway, Thanks, WiseChicks. And Suellyn, I still like your idea. So, I'll go for it! And I'm using a incubator from my sister in law and she mentioned the same thing as you said "wach out with the heating element above them. Don't leave them in the incubator too long." So, I'm planning when their feather got dry, I'll move them to the brooder. (After everyone hatched.) Thank you

Noriko.