Oops- day 20 and just now took the eggs out of the turner

[teach]

I have some beautiful eggs from a breeder in Tennessee, 99.5, Little Giant incu,, and a really cool turner. But then I forgot to take them out of the turner until today. ugh! so mad at myself. (finals week had me distracted)
What happens to the little darlings when they get turned so close to hatching? Hope and pray we get half of them.

 

[sumi]

I got caught out once or twice when I went to turn the eggs one last time on day 18 I found chick's busy hatching! The late turning didn't seem to do them any harm. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[teach]

Thanks so much for your encouragement. I feel so bad- the eggs are my son's hatch this time and I just forgot. We've got one wiggling tonight.
The last time we hatched I left the first ones in while they dried, and lost the rest of the hatch. I cracked a few just to see if they had grown, and they were fully developed. Do you think the extra kicking from the first hatchlings killed the others? I only got 4 out of 12.
How long do you let yours dry?

 

[sumi]

I normally leave them in for 1-2 hours after hatching, depending on how crowded it is in the incubator. I've never had problems resulting from hatched chicks kicking the unhatched ones around though. Their cheeping actually seems to encourage the unhatched chicks!

Full term chicks failing to hatch could be due to a number of things. In short:

- humidity too high during incubation and lockdown
- incubator temperature too low
- hatcher temperature too high
- inadequate turning during the early stages of incubation
- nutritional deficiencies or diseases in breeder flock
- hereditary
- eggs have been stored too long pre-incubation
- inadequate ventilation during incubation/hatch

Hope that helps and hope you get a good hatch this time!