HELP, chick fell down to bottom of cabinet incubator!

[juliecox]

Ok, so maybe this happens all the time, or is supposed to happen, but I can't find it mentioned anywhere on BYC, which is a first. I am hatching 90 eggs in an old GQF cabinet incubator. It has 3 levels of egg racks. A little while ago our first chick hatched, loud and active and lovely. Too active, apparently, because it took her no time at all to clamber up, fall off the rack and down to the bottom of the incubator. Is she alright down there?! She seems fine, but she can't stand up under the bottom shelf, so she's kind of cramped. I don't want to open up an incubator full of eggs to rescue one chick, even if she is adorable and first! Is this common?

 

[juliecox]

Anybody? The kids are going nuts saying "Get her out! Get her out!" And I'm yelling back "She's fine! She's fine!" Hoping that I am right ...

(Seeing the humor in the situation ... The 4-year-old is the one clamoring to take the chick out. The two-year-old has no idea what we're going on about, and is just happy to take his brother's side in pestering me for something. After all, if his big brother is so adamantly asking for something, it MUST be good.)

 

[magsrags]

If she isn't in danger of being hurt leave her be for now is what I might suggest. She is OK and you don't want to endanger the rest of your hatch. tough love.....:<)

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[juliecox]

Dang it - I missed a crucial point about that incubator. There are incubating trays, and there are hatching trays. I do not have hatching trays. I wasn't even aware they existed until a few minutes ago. Craaaaaap! I hope I don't end up with a whole slew of chicks down there!

 

[kathyinmo]

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Oh, you probably will. Just my guess. I have a Sportsman, and when I hatched them, I moved them to the bottom to hatch. I just sat the eggs in an egg carton to hatch from the bottom shelf. I simply removed the bottom tray totally.

 

[magsrags]

Oops!

 

[greathorse]

I have hatching trays and they jump out of them all the time and wind up in the bottom. As a matter fact I often find more on the bottom than in the tray. What are you hatching in? I am assuming you took them out of the egg rack and layed them down some how. Good luck I dont think you have anything to worry about.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

if you don't have a hatching tray someone can make you one, but the best part of a hatch tray is the cover keeps the chicks contained,the only problem with no tray is the floor of the 'bator is slippery, not good, I place a towel or something rough, cheese cloth, on the floor, help to prevent spraddle leg

 

[juliecox]

It's an old GQF 1266 cabinet incubator. I saw one post where some absolutely ingenious person had made little hardware cloth toppers to go across the front (and presumably the back) of the trays. D'oh! I wish I had known about that, I'd so have done that! It didn't occur to me until she jumped over the edge that day-old chicks would even be capable of getting out of the trays. I had the eggs in racks, and I took the racks out and just laid them in the wire-bottom trays when I went into lockdown.