Incubator dilemma!!

[Simple-country]

New question, new thread! I have babies that have hatched out (some mine some shipped). They started on Day 20 and today is day 22 with some eggs still in there (one half zipped and stuck for a day now but still chirping and breathing and others no sign yet). My question. Do I get the hatched ones out being its been 48 hours for a couple and help the stuck one? Or should I wait longer? Bad things happen when the bator is opened!

 

[sumi]

If you are quick, when removing the hatched chicks, the unhatched eggs should be fine. As long as you get the humidity back up to the required level (around 60+ %) again afterwards. Placing a wet sponge in the incubator is one way of bumping it up again. But if it drops a bit and stays lower than the ideal for a few minutes, it's not a disaster. I've had broody hens get up for a stroll in the middle of hatching a clutch of eggs with no resulting issues.

As for assisting the stuck chick, I'll hand you over to our resident expert:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

Best of luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Bad things can possibly happen when the incubator is opened during hatch. They don’t always happen. A lot of times nothing bad happens.

The chicks can go over 72 hours and often even more than four full days without eating and drinking anything because they absorb the yolk. I just hatched some chicks in an incubator and gave them to a broody hen. A couple hatched on last Monday, the others on Tuesday. She did not bring them off the nest to eat and drink until Friday. They are all doing great. You don’t have to open the incubator yet as far as food and drink go. I’ll leave the decision to help that chick or not up to you.

It is possible to shrink-wrap a chick by opening the incubator during hatch. It’s possible to shrink-wrap a chick just from too low humidity during incubation or having the humidity too low inside during hatch without opening the incubator. Shrink-wrapping can and does happen. But a whole lot of people open their incubator regularly during hatch and don’t suffer problems. Just because something might happen does not mean it will. I don’t open my incubator during hatch unless I have a problem to deal with. If I need to I will open it.

If you decide to open it, get the humidity inside as high as you can. Maybe mist the eggs with warm water when you open it. Don’t get in such a rush that you harm something but don’t waste time either. Plan what you are going to do, have everything ready, and get in and get out.

One problem you will probably have. Those chicks are pooping in there and there is gunk left over from the hatched egg shells. As humid as it is in the incubator that is probably going to start stinking about now. If the hatch drags on for another day that can get really ripe. I don’t have a great way to deal with that. To correct it you would need to empty the incubator and clean it out. What do you do with the unhatched eggs in the meantime? You’d need a warm place with high humidity to keep them until the incubator was cleaned.

I wish you luck. It’s an exciting yet stressful time. Sounds like you are experiencing success.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Personally, I remove my chicks as they hatch and become active, but I keep my humidity 75%+ at hatch so humidity is not a problem. I've never had problems from opening the incubator during hatch. I'm a meddler and I'll be the first one to admit it, but I take precautions too. Usually (though not always) a chick that starts to zip and stalls for hours is a sign there's a problem. I believe in assisting if I think there's a problem, many people do not agree or believe in assisting. That's where you have to find your comfort level. You could help a chick that wouldn't have made it and have that chick grow to a healthy productive adult, or you could help a chick and find that it needs to be culled because there was a greater reason it had problems hatching itself. Only you can weigh where your philosphies are and what you can handle.