First hatch: Day 21

Sahraschweiss

Songster
Apr 9, 2020
429
1,092
216
Wildwood, Missouri
First hatch. It's day 21. Don't know what I am doing.

Started with 12 eggs. At day 18 I candled. 2 were duds. The remaining 10 looked like they were developing like the pictures, but it's my first time so do I know. I returned 10 to incubator.

Humidity was in the 45-55% range and at day 18 cranked it up to 65-70%.

5pm of day 20 (last night) I had one hatch. With lots of movement on two others. This morning --day 21- I had two hatch overnight and 2 more during the day. Total 5 hatched.

Chicks are still in the incubator and moving around so much that I can't tell if any of remaining 5 are close to hatching.

When do I open the incubator and remove the chicks?

This evening would be 24 hours from hatch for the oldest chick.

Thanks!
 
A chick can go up to 48 hours without food or water, you can pull out some of the chicks that fluffed out, just add some water after you took them out.
Some would advise you to keep it closed until every singe chick has hatched but I have taken them out in pairs with no problems. Just make sure no one is hatching when you pull them out😊😊
 
I was just about to lift the lid and saw that one had zippered. I will wait for it to dry before moving.
They are moving around so much that I can't tell if other eggs are close to hatching.


Thank you!
I would definitely wait until the one has hatched, after that the humidity will rise and If no one else is hatching you can take some of them out😊
 
I find right after a chick hatches is the best time to remove the fluffed ones. The humidity rises a LOT when there is one that is wet in there. So when you remove the fluffed ones the other one is still wet so humidity instantly spikes right back up.
 
Thanks @junior67 and @Firsttimehens1234 for the replies.

Total hatched 7. All seem to be busy and doing chicky things. These were all first year eggs from the same girl. I was worried about using first year eggs because the shells and membranes are so strong, but my husband started storing them and had everything set up. So he was determined to hatch some chicks from one of his favor girls.

Thanks all!

Now time to clean the incubator.
 
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