How long have you left chicks in incubator?

[Cycomiko]

Often, when incubating eggs in large quantities, we put eggs of various sizes (breed differences) and often the larger ones will be up to 24 hours behind the small ones. Whats the longest you've left a chick in the incubator? We've gone 36 hours without problem.

 

[parvani]

I've been advised by an expert chicken breeder that "lockdown means lockdown", and not to open the incubator for ANY reason until the last pipping egg has hatched -- basically Day 19 thru Day 22. Because opening the incubator can mean dried membranes and fewer hatching chicks.

So that has meant the chick that hatches late on Day 19 stays in the incubator until the afternoon of Day 22 -- three days. That's nearly 72 hours!

He was fine. He's a little bigger than his brothers and sisters -- a fast grower from the start!

You've seen him in my other posts... This is Boof, the biggest Crevecoeur chick, at about 9 days old:

 

[Offshoreorca]

This is definitely against popular opinion, but sometimes I take them out shortly after they have hatched, particularly if they’re super active and bowling all the eggs around as I have a very small incubator (Brinsea Mini Advance). The disclaimer is that I know what I’m doing and have a lot of experience with it, it’s quite humid where I live, and I don’t actually remove the lid - I wait until the chick is right next to the edge, then quickly lift the edge a tiny bit and take it out using the smallest gap possible. Because of the dome shaped design of this Brinsea, most of the humidity isn’t lost as long as long as things are done quickly. I have never had a shrink-wrapped chick that I’ve had to assist yet with this technique.

That being said, if you are an inexperienced or have a different incubator it is much better to wait until everyone has hatched as you can cause yourself a lot of trouble if you keep going in and out of the incubator during lockdown. Understand that intervention during lockdown can put the lives of any unhatched chicks at risk. If I am not hatching my own eggs or ones that I know the health/hardiness of, I will not take the risks mentioned above.

Usually mine aren’t in for more than a couple hours - often only until they start moving around. I’ve never yet had a hatch span more than 24hrs, but I know many people who do and leave the chicks in during that whole period

 

[Cycomiko]

This is definitely against popular opinion, but sometimes I take them out shortly after they have hatched, particularly if they’re super active and bowling all the eggs around as I have a very small incubator (Brinsea Mini Advance). The disclaimer is that I know what I’m doing and have a lot of experience with it, it’s quite humid where I live, and I don’t actually remove the lid - I wait until the chick is right next to the edge, then quickly lift the edge a tiny bit and take it out using the smallest gap possible. Because of the dome shaped design of this Brinsea, most of the humidity isn’t lost as long as long as things are done quickly. I have never had a shrink-wrapped chick that I’ve had to assist yet with this technique.

That being said, if you are an inexperienced or have a different incubator it is much better to wait until everyone has hatched as you can cause yourself a lot of trouble if you keep going in and out of the incubator during lockdown. Understand that intervention during lockdown can put the lives of any unhatched chicks at risk. If I am not hatching my own eggs or ones that I know the health/hardiness of, I will not take the risks mentioned above.

Usually mine aren’t in for more than a couple hours - often only until they start moving around. I’ve never yet had a hatch span more than 24hrs, but I know many people who do and leave the chicks in during that whole period

I have a Brinsea mini also, not the advance, but bought the low model for 29.00 at TSC on clearance. Added a manual turner, and had a decent hatch. Only used it once, but I never thought about the dome holding humidity. Thanks for that thought. I actually bought 3 of those minis at that price and haven't use the other 2. I may use them to hatch out sets of 21 on that info. Thanks

 

[Offshoreorca]

I have a Brinsea mini also, not the advance, but bought the low model for 29.00 at TSC on clearance. Added a manual turner, and had a decent hatch. Only used it once, but I never thought about the dome holding humidity. Thanks for that thought. I actually bought 3 of those minis at that price and haven't use the other 2. I may use them to hatch out sets of 21 on that info. Thanks

Hot air rises, so if you work with it it’s actually a pretty ingenious design that has its benefits. Hope you have good luck with Brinsea in future hatches!

Here’s a brand new one from last night - he wasn’t in the incubator for very long and is a happy fluffy chick thriving with his siblings now

 

[Offshoreorca]

I take them out a few minutes after they hatch. I don't want the chicks running around and bumping into the other eggs. The longest I left a chick in was overnight, but only because there were no other eggs left in the incubator.

Glad to hear that I’m not the only one that does this. I’ve never had problems.

 

[rascal66]

Typically we do anywhere between 12-24 hours. Sometimes when the trays are really full of eggs, I have a peace of mind removing some of the earlier hatched chicks to make more room for the others about to hatch. But by then, the rest come out the next day, and they're usually all fluffy by then.

 

[Cycomiko]

I've been advised by an expert chicken breeder that "lockdown means lockdown", and not to open the incubator for ANY reason until the last pipping egg has hatched -- basically Day 19 thru Day 22. Because opening the incubator can mean dried membranes and fewer hatching chicks.

So that has meant the chick that hatches late on Day 19 stays in the incubator until the afternoon of Day 22 -- three days. That's nearly 72 hours!

He was fine. He's a little bigger than his brothers and sisters -- a fast grower from the start!

You've seen him in my other posts... This is Boof, the biggest Crevecoeur chick, at about 9 days old:

View attachment 2531741

That's awesome, I feel the same, my first hatch of 9 eggs, we had an egg hatch on day 23. We didn't think it would hatch, the other 8 were long done. Then we heard little curious chirps on the night of day 22. 2 years later we had an awesome Christmas card of the girl.

 

[parvani]

That's awesome, I feel the same, my first hatch of 9 eggs, we had an egg hatch on day 23. We didn't think it would hatch, the other 8 were long done. Then we heard little curious chirps on the night of day 22. 2 years later we had an awesome Christmas card of the girl.

That's a SUPER first hatch! May I ask what kind of incubator you were using?

 

[Cycomiko]

That's a SUPER first hatch! May I ask what kind of incubator you were using?

Sure. It was a Magicfly... On Amazon around $69. I had multiple 100% hatches for 3 years. On the fourth, I tried it and it was a rollercoaster in temps. Managed to save 5 eggs that I hope will hatch this weekend. Now our primary for the first 18 days is a Brinsea 56ex that I don't use the humidity pump. And the final 3 days we use a farm innovations 2100 I got for free with a fan added. The Brinsea is too hard to clean and we can stagger hatches this way. I didn't want to start this early, but 3 broody girls hatched eggs today and I have 3 more that just got broody. Below freezing every night. No temp over 40. So we started the incubators to donate chicks for ones that get off the nest too long on a 20 degree day.