Opening the incubator to remove early hatchers

[emorems0]

I had 2 chicks hatch a day early, I left them in the incubator for a day in order to keep the lid closed during 'lock down'. They were joined by a 3rd the next day and I figured they would start needing food and water so I opened the lid to grab them out and transfer them to the brooder.

We had 4 more hatch later that day and after they were all dry and fluffed up, I grabbed them out too. Another 4 were ready to come out early the next morning (now day 22), so I transferred them to the brooder too.

So the incubator has been opened several times and today (day 23) there was a chick that was about halfway zipped and seemed to not be progressing so I took her out to assist... the membrane was pretty dry and stuck to the chick in some places. We got her out and she's doing okay, but there is another chick in the incubator that is just pipped. I'm worried it is 'shrink wrapped' too.

There are also 8 more eggs in the incubator that haven't pipped - did I ruin their chances by opening up the incubator too much? How do you deal with early hatchers when it can take a couple days for all of the eggs to hatch? I tried to slip a little upside down lid into the incubator and fill with water through the holes on the top of the incubator, but the chicks just fell in it and soaked themselves. I know chicks can go their first day without food and water, but they can't go 3 days... they'll need to be taken out sometime before all of the rest hatch.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

I like to remove chicks and put them in the brooder as soon as there are two or more that are dry. Contrary to popular belief, opening the bator during lockdown is not an awful thing to do. If do it too often and the humidity goes down, that isn't good, but you can always add water. They should be fine.

Hope you have a good hatch! We love chick pictures.

 

[Chickassan]

You can take them out, just be quick. And no you didn't ruin your other eggs not unless you just left the incubator open for minutes upon minutes at a time and I know you didn't do that. It will be fine.