first hatch follow-up question

[nancyrae]

I am just finishing my first hatch! I started with 48 eggs. Before lock down I candled and took out 5 eggs. I had 22 hatch. Today is day 24. I still have 21 eggs in the incubator. I want to give them one more day just in case. My question: I was surprised how rowdy the first 15 or so were after they hatched, while they were drying out! They probably completely disturbed some of the other eggs, rolled them completely over! If I am suppose to 'lockdown' and not disturb any of the eggs for 3 days before hatching, how is it that is ok for them to do so?!! Could this be part of the reason why more didn't hatch? If so, should I have taken them out sooner? Over all, I am happy! I am considering it a successful hatch and I can't wait till next spring to do it again!! BTW: I shared the experience with the grand boys! They loved it!!

 

[SunsetEggs]

It is unlikely that the chicks' movement would upset the other eggs so much so as to render 21 of them unable to hatch, so my guess is that something else might have happened. That being said, I usually remove chicks (in groups, not one at a time) when they are fully dry and no other chicks are zipping (small pips in the shell are fine but not large cracks). I also throw in a few damp paper towels when I take them out to keep the humidity up in the bator. As for the ones left over, I candle any ones left at day 25 to check for movement. If they aren't moving, then I toss them and turn the bator off. Since you had so many eggs go into lockdown and then not hatch, you may want to do an "eggtopsy" where you crack open the eggs that didn't hatch to see what went wrong. It is a bit disturbing I will admit, but it is all part of learning and improving for next time. There are a few threads on doing an "eggtopsy" on BYC or look on google. Good luck with your new babies and hope you get a better hatch rate next time!