Leave as is, or is there something I can do?

[TonkaTrucker]

We have some chicks currently hatching the incubator. One last nice, and a few pips since. We hoped to place some food in for the one from last night, and to check on the pip'd ones. After a few hours I've come onto the great internet to look into hatch times, and realize they can be quite wide spread, as well as that we should not have opened the lid and let out the humidity. It does go back up for 67% when we closed it.

My question is, now that I know and we'd opened it up a few times, should we try to compensate and bump the humidity a bit? Leave it closed and as is?

Thank you kindly for your time! Just found this site today, and has a lot of good information on it!

 

[cadeschicks]

I'm a terrible meddler when it comes to opening the incubator. Most people on here would be horrified how often I open it during "lock down". I take chicks out several at a time after three or four hatch. This is generally a frowned upon practice. The good news is that my babies hatch anyway.

I do generally keep my humidity at 75% or 80% which may help compensate for some of the peeking that I do. A wet rag placed in the incubator can help keep it up there. Also sometimes I mist the un-pipped eggs to make sure nothing is drying out.

The one that hatched last night, technically doesn't need food yet. I'd say if you're concerned enough to feed it, just go ahead and move it to the brooder.

Right now I have 17 in the brooder and 3 eggs remaining in the incubator. The last three eggs in the incubator are fine despite my tampering. On 2 of them I can see their little beaks breathing calmly through the pip with no sign of distress. The third one just pipped about 15 minutes ago. I wish I was patient enough to just leave them alone, but I am not.

 

[TonkaTrucker]

Thank you! This has definitely eased my mind a bit

 

[MGG]

X2! They're fine. The one won't eat yet, it's too young. Also, never offer food until after the chick has drank on its own. It could definitely be moved to a brooder, as long as one side is 95 degrees.