Ended Official 2020 BYC Halloween Hatch-Along

[Pensmaster]

View attachment 2399799
Pips & peeps!! Soooo close

 

[alknoll]

Update: 2 Silkies + 2 OE mixes have hatched. It is now approaching Day 21. I have a pip on two other eggs. My question is: how long can I leave these chicks in the incubator? Will it disrupt the other eggs too much to grab the chicks out?

 

[Pensmaster]

I take mine out as soon as they are fluffed up. Maybe 12 hours, less than 24 hours. Watch humidity level as that can mess with piped chicks.

 

[alknoll]

I take mine out as soon as they are fluffed up. Maybe 12 hours, less than 24 hours. Watch humidity level as that can mess with piped chicks.

Thanks. Just had another one hatch. Maybe I’ll start grabbing 1-2 at a time

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks. In my case older birds (Eggs were huge) for first batch and older eggs (Mine)for second hatch probably the problem.

Large eggs can cause late hatches just like small eggs like silkie and serama eggs can cause early hatches. That points to the size of the egg and that internal egg temperature is somewhat dictated by size and mass.

 

[alknoll]

Large eggs can cause late hatches just like small eggs like silkie and serama eggs can cause early hatches. That points to the size of the egg and that internal egg temperature is somewhat dictated by size and mass.

that is helpful, thank you. I’m going to do my best to transfer chicks to brooder and give the BCMs a chance to hatch later

 

[ChickenCanoe]

that is helpful, thank you. I’m going to do my best to transfer chicks to brooder and give the BCMs a chance to hatch later

The best approach is to set eggs together that are of comparable size and even of the same breed and strain. Not doing so will almost guarantee protracted hatches.

 

[Sara L]

The best approach is to set eggs together that are of comparable size and even of the same breed and strain. Not doing so will almost guarantee protracted hatches.

Or stagger the set times, set the bigger (take longer) first, wait the difference then add the next group etc. I've hatched large fowl chicken with bantam chicken and coturnix quail and even button quail this way. It is helpful to have hatching boxes though, to keep the smaller chicks from being trampled by the biggest.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I hatch different breeds and bantams with standards all the time. I've never had an issue with the hatch being too staggered. It's almost always within 24 hours unless it's a chick struggling to hatch in general. When the hatch is staggered enough I just remove all of the hatched chicks before the others get started. As a matter of fact, when I hatched Light Brahmas (a very large line of them genetically, the roosters head was as tall as my waist) with Silkies last year, the Light Brahmas hatched first!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

that is helpful, thank you. I’m going to do my best to transfer chicks to brooder and give the BCMs a chance to hatch later

Ok, I see the discussion is about Marans. They're notorious slow pokes at hatching in my experience. It still hasn't stopped me from hatching other breeds with them but it is pretty typical for me to remove all of the hatched chicks before the Marans start hatching, lol. Depending on the incubator you're using, some return to humidity much faster than others but a trick that I find works for almost all incubators is that I will wait until a chick is freshly hatched and wet and then I go in to quickly remove all of the fluffy chicks, leaving the wet ones. The moisture and warmth on the chick will return the incubator to the appropriate humidity very quickly.