First time incubation help

[BigMomma24]

Hey all! Brand new to incubating and doing extensive research but there is one *paranoid* thought I cannot find an answer to. I know the chicks can stay in the incubator for 24-48 hours, but also once hatching begins the incubator is on lockdown to prevent humidity and temperature loss. AND hatch times vary. That being said..what if a chick happens to hatch on day 19 or 20 while another happens to start hatching on 21 or 22. The first chick should be coming out of the incubator while the latter still needs to be on lockdown to prevent shrinkwrapping. How would I navigate that situation? I'm sure it's an unlikely scenario but not impossible and want to make sure we do right by the babies as we take on role of mother nature. Thank yall!

 

[Chicks in VA]

Hey all! Brand new to incubating and doing extensive research but there is one *paranoid* thought I cannot find an answer to. I know the chicks can stay in the incubator for 24-48 hours, but also once hatching begins the incubator is on lockdown to prevent humidity and temperature loss. AND hatch times vary. That being said..what if a chick happens to hatch on day 19 or 20 while another happens to start hatching on 21 or 22. The first chick should be coming out of the incubator while the latter still needs to be on lockdown to prevent shrinkwrapping. How would I navigate that situation? I'm sure it's an unlikely scenario but not impossible and want to make sure we do right by the babies as we take on role of mother nature. Thank yall!

So if its just 1 or 2 chicks its quite simple
Grab as fast as possible without hurting the chick then close the incubator you have to get the other one to food and water so it doesn't die

just go fast!!!!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

AND hatch times vary. That being said..what if a chick happens to hatch on day 19 or 20 while another happens to start hatching on 21 or 22. The first chick should be coming out of the incubator while the latter still needs to be on lockdown to prevent shrinkwrapping. How would I navigate that situation? I

Collect and store hatching eggs properly to start with. Set all eggs at the same time to avoid staggered hatch. Move eggs to a new place in the bator daily ( or at desired intervals, during candling for square types) to combat any hot or cool spots that might delay hatching, even in curculated air bators.

If a chick does hatch too early.. I drape towels over my arms and the bator lid to retaion temp and humidity while I quickly grab out the chick once dired off and ready.. Noting that bators like the nurture right 360 have more risk of knocking other eggs out making the risk even greater than just shrink wrapping and is why I no longer use that type.

Lock down is a good idea.. but there are no real hard and fast rules once the heart is involved!

A link to my favorite "technical" hatching resource..

https://www.hubbardbreeders.com/media/incubation_guideen__053407700_1525_26062017.pdf

Happy hatching!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

As long as you don't have the incubator open for minutes at a time it's perfectly fine to open it up for a few seconds to grab what chicks you need and then close it back up.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A healthy chick can go 72 hours or more from hatch until it needs to eat or drink. The postal regulations on shipping chicks use that 72 hours. The chicks must be shipped within 24 hours of hatch and must have a reasonable chance of delivery within 48 hours of shipping, a total of 72 hours. So you have more time than you thought.

The risk of opening the incubator when an egg has pipped is that you could cause an egg to shrink-wrap. That's where the membrane inside the egg dries out and shrinks around the chick so it can't move or hatch. By opening the incubator you allow moisture to escape. If a chick has pipped the membrane is in danger of drying out. There are threads on here that tell you how to assist in the hatch if a chick is shrink-wrapped, it would not hurt you to look for one and read up on it just in case. As much as some people on this forum seem to be in denial it can and does happen.

But it does not happen that often. It really doesn't. Since it can happen I consider it good practice to not open the incubator after lockdown. But since I know the risk is low, if I have an emergency I will open the incubator and take care of the emergency. I did shrink-wrap a chick doing that one time so I am convinced it can possibly happen, but a lot of other eggs did not shrink-wrap. I consider the risk fairly low but why take a risk with a chick's life if you don't have to.

Sometimes if people are going to open the incubator they steam up a bathroom to raise the humidity and open the incubator in there. It is less likely to dry out. Some people put warm water (around 100 degrees F) in a spray bottle and gently mist the eggs to keep them from drying out as much. Just gently mist, you don't want to soak the egg or drown the chick if its beak is sticking out. I don't do either of those things and it is still seldom a problem. I've done it a few times, just not as a habit.

For what it's worth I once had a hen hatch a chick late on a Monday. About 80 hours later she brought her chicks off of the nest to get food and water. The chick that hatched first was fine after all that time.

Practically all of my hatches are over with within much less than 48 hours, some as quick as 16 hours and most are about 20 chicks, but you never know when one will stretch out. I think it is a good question.

 

[BigMomma24]

Thank you! We only have 2 hens that we are collecting eggs from to incubate; just a porcelain and mille fleur bantams and we collect twice a day from all of our hens so we should be good on the hatch time. I just like/try to be as prepared as I can be especially in a new situation. I did buy the Nurture Right going off of reviews and budget and research but looking at it now I see what you mean about eggs potentially rolling out when open. Seems a bit of a design flaw. But we are hatching in small batches. 2 bantam hens and 2 duck hens afterwards so hope all goes well!

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Not an expert, but maybe someone can chime in - would running a humidifier in the room help? So the interior and room humidity were closer to the same? Seems logical to me, but never tried it.