Help!

First Timer! · Sep 7, 2017

We have our first hatchling!!! There's not a lot of room in the incubator should I remove some of the shell?

Pyxis · Sep 7, 2017

Great!

You can if you want

duluthralphie · Sep 7, 2017

First Timer! said:
We have our first hatchling!!! There's not a lot of room in the incubator should I remove some of the shell?

Not until they all have hatched.// DO NOT OPEN, leave the humidity in there. In 24 hours or so remove the unhatched eggs and shells.

Pyxis · Sep 7, 2017

duluthralphie said:
Not until they all have hatched.// DO NOT OPEN, leave the humidity in there. In 24 hours or so remove the unhatched eggs and shells.

Lol, this is where we disagree

I open the incubator all the time during hatching. That's the beauty of BYC though, you get to see all the different opinions.

duluthralphie · Sep 7, 2017

Pyxis said:
Lol, this is where we disagree I open the incubator all the time during hatching. That's the beauty of BYC though, you get to see all the different opinions.

Yep, I have learned from my experience I am better risking one bird that all the unhatched. That said, I think the type of incubator makes a difference and the local humidity too.

I have cabinets, if I open the door even a little all the humidity comes rushing out. I have found I get too many stuck chicks and deformed legs/feet if I open the incubator during the hatch.

Besides I would rather have the weak ones die in the hatcher than helping them live and breed their weaker genes..

(completely my opinion and does not change the validity of yours, like you said BYC gives you all sides and a person has to decide on their own what to do)

@Pyxis I don't recall but do you disinfect your eggs before you incubate or not? (Just seeing if we agree or disagree on this)

I know I am in the minority on that.

Pyxis · Sep 7, 2017

duluthralphie said:
Yep, I have learned from my experience I am better risking one bird that all the unhatched. That said, I think the type of incubator makes a difference and the local humidity too.

I have cabinets, if I open the door even a little all the humidity comes rushing out. I have found I get too many stuck chicks and deformed legs/feet if I open the incubator during the hatch.

Besides I would rather have the weak ones die in the hatcher than helping them live and breed their weaker genes..

(completely my opinion and does not change the validity of yours, like you said BYC gives you all sides and a person has to decide on their own what to do)

@Pyxis I don't recall but do you disinfect your eggs before you incubate or not? (Just seeing if we agree or disagree on this)

I know I am in the minority on that.

Yes, the type of incubator does make a difference! I have a Brinsea, and the humidity goes back up very quickly after opening it. I can definitely see why you wouldn't want to be opening it with a cabinet.

I haven't disinfected eggs, but I can see how that might help hatch rates. I have read about it, and if I ever end up having Oxine on hand I'll probably give it a try. With my own eggs I usually get a 100% or close to 100% hatch rate so I'm not sure it'll make much of a difference but who knows, I do get the occasional blood ring, so maybe it would help with that.

First Timer! · Sep 8, 2017

Thank you so much for your help! I did remove two opened eggs yesterday and the humidity seemed to stay pretty stable but last night two more hatched and I think the ducklings all piled on top of each other which made the lid of the incubator come off!! So I've had to move them out of the incubator into the ready warmed tub. I don't know how long the lid was like that for, I put some warm water into the middle water bowl to try and get the humidity back up again. Really hoping the last two are ok. They have both pecked holes and have their beaks poking out.