Help, first time incubating...THANKS!

[IdasChickens]

Hi everyone! I'm on mobile, so super short;

I have a chick that just hatched in the incubator...Well, it hatched while I was sleeping ....And it crashed into all the other eggs, sending them rolling all over the place. Some were still pipping! And she is still crashing into them!

What do I do? Thanks so much!

Idaschickens

By the way...I'm sure this is a super common question, sorry. I just hadn't thought of it till now....in the meantime, I'm Googling. So far, it seems like this is normal? What about the orientation of the chicks that were pipping? Thanks again, everyone! I will keep googling...

 

[sumi]

I have a chick in the incubator right now that I pulled my broody's nest this morning, about 11 hours ago now. It pipped before I got to it, she got up with the chicks and left it. It was lukewarm by the time I found and moved it. It's fine though, I just heard it chirp LOUD

I've had pippies wait for 18 hours before they started zipping and hatching and I've had them pip, zip and hatch in what felt like 5 minutes at the time. Sometimes they are quick, but most of the time it seems they are in nooooo rush.

If they don't make progress for 24 hours I'd start to investigate, check if they need help, but they seldom do. A friend of mine put together a wonderful article on assisting and when and how to do it, if needed, with some pics to show what to look for: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

The chick that broke the shell, but it appears the membrane is intact? If you look very carefully you may see a little hole in the membrane. I've seen this too and examined the eggs and found they did break the membrane just enough. It can breathe in there and that is all they need to do right now. After pipping the chicks need to absorb the yolk sac, there are some graphic pics in the article that shows it. This process can take up to 24 hours, or more, so during this time they need time and oxygen and humidity, that's all. Don't worry about opening the lid a little while, you've done good upping the humidity again and they won't shrink wrap that quickly. But don't open it again, unless you have to.

 

[sumi]

Don't worry, they will be fine. My chicks do the same when they hatch and it hasn't caused any problems for the unhatched chicks.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Thank you, sumi! I appreciate your prompt reply

It is crazy in that incubator right now. Soooo tempting to open it and intervene....

Couple pips rolled next to the wall of the bator. They are still wiggling pretty good though. Maybe I will take a nap and wake up to more baby Rocks!

Don't Let Temptation Take Over----Leave it Closed. I just took 80 chicks out of 81 eggs out the hatcher------Talk about eggs Rolling----LOL.

 

[sumi]

I know it's tempting, especially when the chick sees you and starts going nuts! But sit on your hands and let it dry off in there and give the others a chance to hatch. If the chick gets itself into trouble in there (it happens, I glanced at the incubator mid hatch the other day and just saw this little foot frantically waving...) you can open it quickly and rescue it, but unless it's necessary to intervene, keep the lid on and the humidity up. Keep up posted and pics please?

 

[sumi]

You're welcome

We've all been first-timers once, I know how stressful it can be when you are so anxious for the hatch to go well. It sounds like yours is progessing VERY nicely now? I have a feeling I'm going to check in here tomorrow morning to an ecstatic report of lots of chicks hatched!

I'm hatching some not-pure RIR's eggs at the moment. After the first hatch they got demoted to "hatchery RIR" and after the second one they got close to mutts LOL I got the parents' eggs as "red chickens" from someone. They are lovely birds and they lay well, so no complaints

 

[sumi]

I'd love to work with pure breeds, but had to make do with what I found locally and mutts it was 95% of the time. As long as they are friendly and lay well, I'm happy.

Aww, that's wonderful! I hope they continue hatching well for you. Just out of interest: my pippy started zipping finally, 14 hours after I took the egg from the nest and I don't know how long before that, the pip happened. Just to give you an example. I'm expecting it will be out within an hour now. It's making good progress.

ETA: it hatched about 10 minutes after I send this.

 

[sumi]

I'm sorry to hear that... There are a few possible causes for deaths after pipping, you can read about them here, if you like:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-failure-to-hatch-diagnosing-incubation-problems

But all in all I'd say 8/10 is not bad at all! My first hatch... faulty thermometer... A friend of ours loaded the incubator with 57 eggs, we got 7 chicks, by some miracle. I completely cooked a few of those eggs... Talk about a learning curve? My DH rebuild the incubator, put in a fan etc and sorted it out for us before we tried again. Second time went much, much better, I think half the eggs hatched.

Take the remaining egg and hold it against your ear and tap it with your fingernail. If there is a live chick in there it will tell you all about it. If there is no response, candle and check what's going on in there. What you can also do is open the egg above the air cell line, just make a big enough hole so you can see inside and dampen the inner membrane with a wet q-tip. Check for movement from the chick.

Looking forward to the pics!

 

[Lalegid]

Their wee fluffy butts are cute. Your rooster and hens are stunning (Barred Rock?). I just bought a North Holland Blue to breed with a Barred Rock rooster, hoping it makes for some cute chickes!

 

[Lalegid]

The rooster breeding with my North Holland Blue is an enormous creature! (Out at my in-laws farm, can't keep a rooster here as we live in town. Just hens and chicks!) He is really cocky though, I've been kicked by him and my Father in Law often has to use a rake to keep him from challenging him.