Hatch Days Help - Incubator

[HarrisonCreek]

We've got one chick hatched in the incubator this morning!! So exciting! I expect one more to hatch today that was pipped yesterday. Several more pipped this morning. Total of 24 eggs.

I know I shouldn't open the incubator, however, I have 6 eggs that I slipped into the incubator a day and a half later than the rest, and they need to be turned 1-2x today before they lock down.

Questions:
- is it ok to open and tilt my younger eggs?
- since I expect several chicks to be wandering abound the incubator starting tomorrow, should I prop the younger eggs in egg cups to keep them positioned and still??

Thanks for any help,

Maya

 

[Kelsie2290]

Since the other eggs are only a day or so behind, would just leave them be, going an extra day without turning shouldn't hurt them. You don't want to open the incubator while chicks are hatching if you can avoid it since that can cause shrink wrapped chicks etc.
Chicks can go 2-3 days without food so you can leave the first hatched chicks in the incubator a couple of days and they will be fine. The hatched chicks will kick around the unhatched eggs, it doesn't seem to bother them. Some people do like to take the hatched chicks out every day or so, especially if the incubator is getting crowded. Just do it quickly and try to get the humidity back up asap. Not sure if you have seen it, but there is a really nice article in the Learning Center https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

 

[HarrisonCreek]

It is a great article, but with the two lots of eggs, I'm still not sure I've done the right thing. Surprisingly, one of the "young" eggs hatched early today. It was a BIG welsummer chick. We've now laid all the young eggs flat for hatching. One has pipped.

Sadly, one of the Buff Sussex that hatched overnight has splayed legs. :-(
My daughters were soooo concerned. We read the post on BYC about using zip-ties and newspaper to immobilize in these cases, so we tried it.
My 11 year old daughter very bravely helped, and the 8 year old took photos.

We weren't able to roll the chick up properly with legs underneath, so we decided to try a sock! Chick was content for a few hours, then... NOT SO MUCH. It took me a while to get the zip tie off (was probably too thick, but it's all we had on hand and I though sooner the better) It was clearly rubbing and I'd crossed the legs, so it couln't stand at all, if it tried.

Ended up needing to use wire snippers to get the zip-tie off, which worked a treat. Then I ended up holding the little thing for much of the afternoon. Hopefully it didn't get too cold.

Meanwhile another Buff Sussex hatched. It's sure got attitude. Still in the incubator with a big Welsummer, who is tolerating the abuse, and an Australorp, which I'm happy to say is out of the line of fire, at least at the moment. I might take the (slightly pigeon-toed) little Buff and put it in with it's 5 look-a-likes overnight. I'm still new at this pecking order thing...