Hatchday help!

[Ridwan]

Hi everyone

I have 13 eggs in my RCOM king Suro 20

7 of my eggs were put in 1 day late. I have just hatched 6 alrdy and the others are due to pip tonight. 2 have alrdy pipped and waiting on the rest. The 6 that alrdy hatched are still in the incubator but they are knocking the day late eggs around. Looks kinda crowded to me, will this affect my day late eggs? I dnt want to open incubator due to humidity will reduce. I Live in the UK. Is it ok to leave all of them in there while knocking the other eggs around? Please do let me know!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Is it ok to leave all of them in there while knocking the other eggs around? Please do let me know!

It's a tough choice sometimes!

I have left the little soccer players in... they should have enough yolk to last up to 72 hours. But I do worry about the effect of rolling all over the place on the unhatched embryos.

If I decide to remove early hatching chicks to the brooder... I simply drape towel over the top of my arms and the bator to help catch and retain the humidity and quickly grab the chicks that are ready. I haven't yet experienced shrink wrapping that I know of.

Since it's half the hatch... I MIGHT go ahead and move the first chicks, if it were me.. But yes, it should be okay to leave them as well if that's your preference. No matter where I THINK I stand on lock down and assisted hatching.. the truth is EVERY time is a new situation and is assessed according to past experiences.

So basically.. there's the ideal way and then there's us doing our best with the knowledge we have at the time. ALL information on hatching is aimed at what's considered the most ideal.. but NOT many rules as we call them are actually set in stone... Life don't care what we think and sometimes still finds away, despite our best efforts to mess it up! And as we go along.. we might decided that the common "best" way is NOT best for us or that we disagree or have differing results.. life is soo intricate and yet variable... there is no right or wrong answer here.. except try what seems like the best choice here and see how it works out.

Next time, maybe don't set eggs on different days? Even then early hatchers do happen on occasion. For me, usually when hatching someone else's eggs as I'm meticulous about my collection, storage, and uniformity..

Congrats on your new babes!

And happy hatching for those still coming!

 

[Ridwan]

It's a tough choice sometimes!

I have left the little soccer players in... they should have enough yolk to last up to 72 hours. But I do worry about the effect of rolling all over the place on the unhatched embryos.

If I decide to remove early hatching chicks to the brooder... I simply drape towel over the top of my arms and the bator to help catch and retain the humidity and quickly grab the chicks that are ready. I haven't yet experienced shrink wrapping that I know of.

Since it's half the hatch... I MIGHT go ahead and move the first chicks, if it were me.. But yes, it should be okay to leave them as well if that's your preference. No matter where I THINK I stand on lock down and assisted hatching.. the truth is EVERY time is a new situation and is assessed according to past experiences.

So basically.. there's the ideal way and then there's us doing our best with the knowledge we have at the time. ALL information on hatching is aimed at what's considered the most ideal.. but NOT many rules as we call them are actually set in stone... Life don't care what we think and sometimes still finds away, despite our best efforts to mess it up! And as we go along.. we might decided that the common "best" way is NOT best for us or that we disagree or have differing results.. life is soo intricate and yet variable... there is no right or wrong answer here.. except try what seems like the best choice here and see how it works out.

Next time, maybe don't set eggs on different days? Even then early hatchers do happen on occasion. For me, usually when hatching someone else's eggs as I'm meticulous about my collection, storage, and uniformity..

Congrats on your new babes!

And happy hatching for those still coming!

Love your response thanks so much!!! We love to hear others experiences too

 

[MysteryChicken]

I usually leave the first hatched chicks in the incubator. If there's like 12 chicks, or more, I'll reduce the crowd, move half into the brooder.
Opening the incubator just to remove chicks won't immediately shrink wrap the unhatched chicks. If your incubators humidity is low for a few hours on hatch day, or lockdown it's fine. Just add more water to boost it again. The humidity under a broody hen is determined by the humidity outside, so it's not super stable. So fluctuations in the incubator humidity won't harm the unhatched chicks much really.