First time hatching with an incubator help

[elb61288]

Ok so this is my first time incubating and we r on day 15 not sure if there's anything I need to do for when they hatch do I leave them in the incubator or take them out or when do I take them out after they hatch? I have a egg turner when do I remove it? Do I put water and food in there for them or wait? When do I put them under a light? Sorry for all the questions I'm just so excited and want to do it right I have 42 eggs incubating and had to toss 1 on day 7 for blood ring all the others look ok some have movement some are clear what do I do with the clear ones? Help plz

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!


Here is a list of what to do:
Around day 17 it is time to stop turning the eggs and to up the humidity to around 65%. Leave the eggs be, they are now on lock-down.

They will begin trying to open the eggs around day 19-20 and should be hatched by day 22, though some are later than others. When the chicks are dry and running around you should move them to a brooder that is 95 F and has some food and water (they don't need it, but might as well give it to them). Opening the incubator lowers the humidity, so try not to do it until you need to.

I would leave the empty eggs alone. They are unlikely to explode if rotten, and this way you can be sure that if there are chicks you are giving them a chance to hatch.

Feel free to ask any more questions you may have!


It is so exciting to wait for chicks! Best of luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

First relax. You’ll be OK. I know, easier said than done. It is an exciting time.

We all do these things differently. There is seldom any one way that is right and everything else end in disaster. That’s part of the reason it can be so confusing, so many different things can work.

Baby chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch. They can live at least three full days and often longer off of the yolk. They do not need to eat or drink for a long time. You do not need to give them any food or water while they are in the incubator.

Sometimes all my eggs hatch within 24 hours of the first on hatching, sometimes it drags on for more than 2 days. That’s another reason it can be confusing, each hatch is different. Some people remove the chicks after they have dried off, some wait until the hatch is over to remove any. One of the risks if you open the incubator during the hatch is that a chick that has pipped but not fully hatched may become shrink-wrapped. That’s where a membrane around the chick dries out and shrinks around the chick, trapping it and preventing it from hatching. Shrink-wrapping does not happen every time you open the incubator, it really does not happen that often. There are a lot of different things that factor into that. If I have an emergency I’ll open the incubator but generally I leave it closed until the hatch is over.

It is traditional to take the turner out and increase the humidity after 18 days of incubation for chicken eggs. If you set them on Tuesday the 6th, then Friday the 24th would be after 18 days of incubation. After this the eggs don’t need to be turned so you take the turner out. That makes clean-up easier plus you don’t have anything in there that can trap a chick’s legs, wings, or neck thus creating an emergency. You increase the humidity to help guard against shrink-wrapping a chick. All this is often called lockdown.

Especially since this is your first time, I’d leave the clears in there. As long as they are not stinking like a rotten egg they won’t harm anything. I normally candle on day 18 when I go into lockdown and remove clears then, but I suggest you mark the ones you think are clears and see what happens. I’d hate for you to make a mistake and throw away a good egg. After the hatch is over see which ones hatched and how well you did in your candling. Treat this first time as a learning experience.

You can look up in the Learning Center at the top of this page for a lot of great information about hatching eggs. Good luck and welcome to the adventure. It’s a fun ride but can be stressful.

 

[elb61288]

Thanks I started incubation Sunday July 5 and candled at days 7 and 14 I marked the clear and no vein and no movement eggs so I would know which they were so do I remove the egg turner today or tomorrow so I don't need to turn them when I take the turner out what day should I see them coming out my kids want to watch and I don't want to miss it? Is there a certain way thy should lay it any way?? Should I candle again I did on Sunday?

 

[elb61288]

How do I get the humidity up to 65 mine stays at 50 and the trays are full

 

[AmyLynn2374]

First relax. You’ll be OK. I know, easier said than done. It is an exciting time.

We all do these things differently. There is seldom any one way that is right and everything else end in disaster. That’s part of the reason it can be so confusing, so many different things can work.

Baby chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch. They can live at least three full days and often longer off of the yolk. They do not need to eat or drink for a long time. You do not need to give them any food or water while they are in the incubator.

Sometimes all my eggs hatch within 24 hours of the first on hatching, sometimes it drags on for more than 2 days. That’s another reason it can be confusing, each hatch is different. Some people remove the chicks after they have dried off, some wait until the hatch is over to remove any. One of the risks if you open the incubator during the hatch is that a chick that has pipped but not fully hatched may become shrink-wrapped. That’s where a membrane around the chick dries out and shrinks around the chick, trapping it and preventing it from hatching. Shrink-wrapping does not happen every time you open the incubator, it really does not happen that often. There are a lot of different things that factor into that. If I have an emergency I’ll open the incubator but generally I leave it closed until the hatch is over.

It is traditional to take the turner out and increase the humidity after 18 days of incubation for chicken eggs. If you set them on Tuesday the 6th, then Friday the 24th would be after 18 days of incubation. After this the eggs don’t need to be turned so you take the turner out. That makes clean-up easier plus you don’t have anything in there that can trap a chick’s legs, wings, or neck thus creating an emergency. You increase the humidity to help guard against shrink-wrapping a chick. All this is often called lockdown.

Especially since this is your first time, I’d leave the clears in there. As long as they are not stinking like a rotten egg they won’t harm anything. I normally candle on day 18 when I go into lockdown and remove clears then, but I suggest you mark the ones you think are clears and see what happens. I’d hate for you to make a mistake and throw away a good egg. After the hatch is over see which ones hatched and how well you did in your candling. Treat this first time as a learning experience.

You can look up in the Learning Center at the top of this page for a lot of great information about hatching eggs. Good luck and welcome to the adventure. It’s a fun ride but can be stressful.

Thanks I started incubation Sunday July 5 and candled at days 7 and 14 I marked the clear and no vein and no movement eggs so I would know which they were so do I remove the egg turner today or tomorrow so I don't need to turn them when I take the turner out what day should I see them coming out my kids want to watch and I don't want to miss it? Is there a certain way thy should lay it any way?? Should I candle again I did on Sunday?

Like Ridgerunner says, many people do things differently and in my opinion it's finding what works for YOU! I used to stop turning at day 18 when I go into lockdown, now I stop at day 14. Most do stop at day 18 and remove the turner and lay the eggs flat. If you candle at day 18 and mark the air cells that will give you an idea of where they will pip. (The lowest dip in the air cell is generally the area you will see the pip.) At lockdown is when you up the humidity. Again many people use different ranges for hatch humidity. If you are hands off and do not open the bator you can most likely run successfully at 65% I am a meddler and open my bator often during hatch so I run my humidity 75%. I remove my chicks to the brooder as they become active and start running around. Usually I have the warmed end of my brooder closer to 100F but I strive for 95-100. I always have water in the bator at the ready with sav a chick electrolyte. You should, if your temps have been steady and at the right temp for the average of incubation, see pipping/hatching between day 20-22, with day 21 generally being the expected hatch day. After a chick pips the shell it can take another 24 hours before the chick hatches so if the kids live close enough you could actually wait until you see the first pip and they probably wouldn't miss anything. (Note:It could take a lot less than 24 hours. Mine average around 12-18 hours with some sooner and some later.) Most hatches are complete within 48 hours after the first hatcher.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

How do I get the humidity up to 65 mine stays at 50 and the trays are full

I use wet sponges in my incubator. I have an LG and I just place them on the screen where the eggs sit. If your wells are full and you add sponges and can't get it to at least 65% then I would consider checking your hygrometer for accuracy after the hatch if you have not done so. (Unless you live in arid desert climate. Then it may be harder to reach a decent humidity.) If you see condensation inside the incubator/on the viewing windw at any point you know that you have too much humidity and can cut it back a bit.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What incubator do you have and how does it handle humidity? Different incubators handle humidity different ways. With some you turn a knob. Many have water reservoirs built into the bottom. Others do other things.

In incubators where you use water reservoirs you manage humidity by water surface area. Water depth in the reservoirs really doesn’t matter, just with deeper ones you don’t run out of water as fast. You can increase water surface area by putting water in additional reservoirs or putting open containers of water in there. You can do like Amy and put a sponge or rag in a reservoir so it wicks out the water and creates more surface area for the water to evaporate from.

Getting kids to actually see a hatch may be a challenge. It can involve a whole lot of waiting and then bam! it’s over. You might hear a chick chirp while still in the egg before pip. That means it has internal pipped, punched its way into the air cell so it can learn to breather air instead of living in a liquid environment. You might see the egg wiggle. That’s the chick getting into position to hatch. Eventually it will poke a hole in the shell in one spot so it can breathe air directly. This is called external pip. The next step will be zip. That’s where the chick cuts a line all the way around the egg so it can push the egg apart and come on out. Some chicks zip fairly soon after they external pip, some can wait forever, maybe 24 hours. The zip and push apart is usually pretty fast once it starts so you might have to be lucky to get to see that.

 

[FrogRaku]

I'm incubating eggs for the first time with an egg turner. AmyLynn - you said most people take the turner out before lockdown - if the turner is the kind that holds the eggs upright, will it be a problem for the chicks hatching if the eggs are then layed on their sides to hatch? Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Commercial hatcheries that may hatch 1,000,000 chicks each week lay the eggs on the side. The eggs will hatch fine if they are laying on their side. One of the reasons they do that is that 100,000 eggs or more in a hatcher produce a lot of heat that late in the incubation process. Their challenge late in the hatch is not to keep the eggs warm but to remove the excess heat so they don’t cook themselves. The eggs laying on their sides expose more area to a cooling breeze blowing over them so they can be more efficiently cooled.

We don’t have that problem. Some people like to keep the eggs upright during hatch. A common way to do this is to take an egg carton, cut away the bottom of each cell to give the egg as much ventilation as you can, and stand the eggs upright, pointy side down. This keeps the eggs from being rolled around by the first chicks that hatch.

I just lay mine on the sides. To me, adding the egg cartons to the mix is just one more complicating factor. But many people really like to do it this way and they normally get good hatches.

I don’t know what your turner looks like but mine has a lot of tight corners. I could easily see a chick getting a leg, wing, or neck caught in one of those tight corners. Besides, when they hatch they are covered in slime and they poop. They make a mess while moving around. Removing the turner before they hatch makes clean-up easier. Egg cartons can just be tossed in the trash.