Full Incubator Hatch Day

[Bush84]

So this may be a stupid question but is it a big deal if my incubator is seriously full and I leave chicks in there after they hatch. I'm getting into micro managing mode. There's nowhere for them to be unless they walk on the other eggs. I know that you don't want to open the incubator to decrease humidity but I have not had a difficult time keeping that up. I guess I just want to know how long I should be waiting until I remove chicks.

 

[MoffatChicken]

My hatch took 48 hours for them to all hatch, my plan was to leave them all in the incubator until the end but they are messy and peck at the newly hatched chicks before they could walk. What i did was wait until I had 3-4 walking around the incubator and then opened the lid quickly 2-3 seconds per chick, until the dry/walking chicks were out.... had my wife working the lid for speed!

But ideally they are good for up to 48 hours in the incubator without food or water

 

[AmyLynn2374]

So this may be a stupid question but is it a big deal if my incubator is seriously full and I leave chicks in there after they hatch. I'm getting into micro managing mode. There's nowhere for them to be unless they walk on the other eggs. I know that you don't want to open the incubator to decrease humidity but I have not had a difficult time keeping that up. I guess I just want to know how long I should be waiting until I remove chicks.

It's a personal decision. I remove my chicks as they become active and start moving around. I keep my humidity up around 75% and I open my bator at will with no adverse effects. Some people wait until the chicks are dry, others leave them until the end and the hatch is over.
I like my chicks to have water and food accessible from the get go.

 

[Bush84]

I think I'll wait until there are a few out and dry and remove chick/eggs. Maybe il try to blast up humidity prior to opening. Poor thing has no space to stand.

 

[Bush84]

I'm hoping somebody is still watching this thread. So far all of the progress has been with my cream legbars. I also have welsummers incubating and i know they were developing, but I had a hard time seeing. Do different breeds hatch at different rates? I don't have a single external pip with the welsummers.

 

[MoffatChicken]

Just saw this now.... how did it go?

 

[Bush84]

It went well considering I had shipped eggs. The welsummers hatched the next day. I have some eggtopsies to do today. The chicks had no trouble meandering on top of the eggs until I took them out.

Edit-15 out of 24 was my final tally unless I have surprise for me in the basement lol.