Help me or stop me before I open my bator

[Amanda31]

I have the little giant with forced air fan.
To make a long story short, I am on day 20 and until the first chick made its way out I didnt realize there isnt much room in there. I have 2 egg cartons with eggs inside making 24 eggs. In order to get the humidity above 65% I have had to fill all the rings in the bottom (channels if you will) and also add 2 containers with water in them. I have screen over those two containers. My humidity is holding 70% now that the first bird has hatched. Looking at this situation, if I go to bed and 6 more chicks hatch out they will have no room at all. The first one cant even sit or stand without his wing getting caught on the side of the egg carton...he is standing between them. Should I pull out my water containers and replace them with a cloth and keep that moist or best not to open the bator?
I just dont want to end up with broke wing or broke leg chickens lol.
I do have a second bator with no fan setup at about 100 degrees but no water incase I had to move some over.

Thanks

 

[Mahonri]

Leave the bator closed. They'll be fine another 24 hours.

 

[Kittymomma]

They'll be fine. I have a lg still air and had no problems. After a few chicks hatched my humidity jumped to 90% and I felt comfortable quickly snatching the dried chicks (and shells that were easy to grab) out to give the others more room, but no need for you to do anything tonight. Happy hatching!

 

[Amanda31]

First of all...wow. I didn't think anyone would be online this time of the morning (0330 am here). So great to get a response that quickly. My major concern was them having enough room if more hatched. I counted 9 pips including the one thats "gone public" lol. So even if they are cramped the will survive just fine even if there is a flood of new tenants? I have 24 eggs in there and when I candled them on day 18 at least 23 looked like viable.

So you think maybe later this afternoon if there are say... 6 plus in there I should go get them? Also some pipped low on the shell and are pushing against the egg carton. I cut it down but I guess not low enough. Will they figure it out and pip elsewhere?

Thanks again so much for not only the reply but the speed at which I got them.

 

[Kittymomma]

The only thing that sounds like it could be a problem is the low pippers. I've never had them pip elsewhere once started (though I have read of a few cases) It can take 24 hours from pip to hatch though so if it were me I'd wait until morning and when I pulled the dried off chicks out I'd take the low pippers and put them on their sides on the wire--they'll get knocked around some (why I like cartons too) but should hatch out just fine.

If the humidity isn't high enough to be comfortable about opening the bator in the morning you can carfully take the whole thing into the bathroom and run a hot shower and crank the heat up to offset the loss when you open the bator. Have a container for the chicks handy and make sure it's good and deep. First time I did it the darn chicks started jumping out of the shoe box--scared the cr.. out of me, but they all survived their "first flight."

I'm only up because the alarm company at dh's work called 'cause the fire alarm went off--everything is ok, something in the system froze, and dh is almost home so I'll be going back to bed soon.

 

[Amanda31]

Haha I love it....I have my bator in a bathroom right now. I thought about the shower earlier as well. I was thinking if I did go in for any reason I could remove those two plastic containers and replace them with some cloths and keep them wet through a hole in the top via a straw. Do you think that could possibly work. Right now I have two gauges inside for humidity and one shows 72% and the other 68%. I didn't know if cloths would do the trick because I have those two containers and all the rings/chambers filled with water at the moment.

Glad it was a false alarm and thanks again.

Oh yeah....I was thinking maybe you were up cooking for tomorrow lol.

 

[Amanda31]

A couple more pics so you can see how cramped my incubator is

 

[OkieChickenDad]

My daughter is the best at this...keeping one channel full during incubation, and both channels full durring hatch and leaving it shut until we are past what we call "round 1". You didnt need extra water. When they start hatching your humidity will go way up. In a no draft area, with brooder close by, my daughter will open and remove the fluffies, well as fluff as they can get in 80+ humidity. If you just open the bator, and shut it, your temps will drop slower, but your humidity will still drop 40% easy. So wait until you have few that have been out for awhile and the remaining eggs are at the most just pipped, but not zipped...Have a plan, with the brooder right there, go over the procedure like you were planning an invasion at Normandy, then open just enough to get your hand in and quickly gather them up. Then take a breath and wait for round 2 with the remaining eggs.

We learned this by trial and error. On our 1st set ever, we opened the incubator and romoved the fluffies. One egg was zipped and 2 pipped. The zipped chick instantly died...the pipped eggs hatched no problem. The shock of the humidity and temp change killed the one chick. So the next few sets we didnt touch them and our hatch rates were poor. Sometimes you will have to get in and "help" 1 or 2 hatch, so we developed a system where we make sure all fans and sources moving air or off, we towel the incubator on all sides (warm damp towel, dampen and microwaved). Then one person will slightly lift the front just enough to slip a hand in. Like I said, go over the plan like a military movement, but for us...this works and we have been able to get our hatch rates up by having a system that allows us to get in a get fluffies out (they will run through the bator like a mosh pit if you dont) By getting them out during the hatching process, you can keep the ramaining eggs in the proper orientation and you know if you need to get in and help one crack or zip, you can without losing heat or humidity. Its the sudden change that does them in. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Amanda31]

Well we have 4 that have gone public now, and 2 more that are zipping away. The humidity is now 75% and I still have some that have pipped low. The others are standing on the eggs in the cartons and sometimes bumping their beaks and maybe head on the heating element. I am going to wait for the other two zippers to finish and crank up the shower to raise the humidity in the room and go get the public peepers and lay the rest of the eggs on their sides without the egg cartons. I am also going to remove the two plastic water containers and put a dish towel in there and keep it moist if needed. I have a second incubator on standby at 100.00 degrees with no fan to hold the chicks and keep them nice and warm.

1. Do I need to put any water into the second incubator for some humidity with the public chicks or will they be fine without?

2. Should I take out the egg cartons all together or just lay the ones that have pipped low on the grate and leave the cartons now that I will have plenty of room?


As always...thanks all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.


My personal joke with my 7 year old " We are going to have turkey for lunch and appetizers of chicken nuggets" ha ha.. small chickens = chicken nuggets.

 

[gryeyes]

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hatching, too!

Hatched chicks don't need the humidity so don't worry about that when you take 'em out of the incubator.