Hatching Mistake

[TabbyLynn23]

I think I made a huge mistake. This was my first time trying to hatch eggs and I ordered Booted Bantam eggs online. Of 17 eggs, I had 11 looking perfect when I locked down my incubator on day 17. Yesterday, day 19, I had three of the 11 pip and hatch. But here's where I think I messed up big time... I didn't realize I was supposed to take the turner out, I just unplugged it, so after the first two pipped Yesterday, I took the turner out and laid all the eggs on their side. The three from yesterday pipped and hatched within 6 hours, now today on day 20, not a single pip or sound from the remaining 8 eggs... did I kill all the chicks by laying them on their side yesterday, or am I just being impatient since day 21 doesn't hit until 9pm tonight? I'm so worried I killed the chicks...

 

[Ridgerunner]

One reason take the turner out to make it easier to clean since you don't have all that mess on it. You stop turning because they don't need to be turned at that point and you don't want a chick to get trapped and crushed by it moving. Taking it out removes some sharp corners they may get trapped in.

As long as the eggs had not pipped when you took the turner out you should not have harmed the eggs. If they have pipped it is possible you could "shrink-wrap" them by exposing them to dry air, but it sounds like the ones that were pipped were not harmed. I don't think what you did harmed those other 8 eggs since they were not already pipped. Give them time and good luck!

 

[Robinator]

One reason take the turner out to make it easier to clean since you don't have all that mess on it. You stop turning because they don't need to be turned at that point and you don't want a chick to get trapped and crushed by it moving. Taking it out removes some sharp corners they may get trapped in.

As long as the eggs had not pipped when you took the turner out you should not have harmed the eggs. If they have pipped it is possible you could "shrink-wrap" them by exposing them to dry air, but it sounds like the ones that were pipped were not harmed. I don't think what you did harmed those other 8 eggs since they were not already pipped. Give them time and good luck!

t

 

[Robinator]

I just had my first 7 eggs in a little incubator. One didn't progress, but I have six little chickies that are growing feathers and trying to fly at 9 days old. They are growing so fast. What I didn't really consider is I put another 5 eggs in from the following weeks eggs and something happened to the progress of the eggs. With the first batch, they came out on day 20 and 21, the next batch wasn't moving, wasn't pipping, they all looked like they died. I started taking them out to discard them and saw one of the eggs move a little. They didn't move again for a day. One egg had a pip hole, which I enlarged and the membrane was hard and covering the beak. I carefully helped open the membrane. I think the temperature of my new incubator (I switched to a new larger one) wasn't high enough and the chicks were way behind on development. One egg did not develop, one egg, the chick was dead, 3 survived, but are small, one was fragile and is just a few days behind the others. Opening an egg and finding a chick is horrible. My chick was already dead, but I still felt like I should have responded to whatever caused them to take so long to try to get out. I will never do a winter incubation again! I have 3 months of weather and chicks expecting to get out and run around. Ack! The whole point of this is that the 3 eggs that are now really cute little guys were the ones sitting on the table, outside of the incubator, that I had intended to discard. They were about 65 - 70 degrees all night long. They are tough little guys. Good luch!