Removing a hatching egg

[ACGM]

• I have a very important question. I am on day 19 of incubation and was adding more surface area for humidity by placing paper towels in the water and adding more water because my humidity was only at 65%. I had to remove all my eggs to do this to access the bottom of the incubator. What I did not notice until I was putting them back in was two of my eggs have already pipped. I don’t know how they were oriented and am wondering if I just killed my chicks? This is my first time incubating so I am freaking out that I just messed them up.

Update: Those chicks are free of their shells and flopping around. I’m waiting for them to fluff out and hopefully they will be good to go. Now waiting on the others to start pipping. Thank you all for calming this newbies nerves!

 

[Criticalicious]

As long as they have enough humidity and heat while hatching, they should be fine. When the babies start hatching, they will kick the other eggs around as they move about anyway. This motion and noise encourages the others to hatch.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

I’m not an expert (and haven’t hatched chicks in an incubator since I was a kid), but as long as they’re back in their warm incubator, they should be okay. Momma hen often turns the eggs when she sits on them, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

Also, the first grade teacher at the school where I work hatches eggs in the class each spring and recruits me to help when they start hatching. I personally like to keep the opening where the beak is facing up where I can keep an eye on progress.

Again, my experience is much more limited than many experts here, so definitely wait for better advice (I just wanted to help take some of the worry off ).

 

[ACGM]

As long as they have enough humidity and heat while hatching, they should be fine. When the babies start hatching, they will kick the other eggs around as they move about anyway. This motion and noise encourages the others to hatch.

Thank you so much! I was not expecting them to start hatching for at least another day so discovering the pips alarmed me.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

Thank you so much! I was not expecting them to start hatching for at least another day so discovering the pips alarmed me.

Haha! I was like that when my hen hatched out her Littles last month. They started arriving a day or two early .

 

[Criticalicious]

21 days is an average. Chickens hatch when they want to, not when we tell them to!

 

[ACGM]

I’m not an expert (and haven’t hatched chicks in an incubator since I was a kid), but as long as they’re back in their warm incubator, they should be okay. Momma hen often turns the eggs when she sits on them, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

Also, the first grade teacher at the school where I work hatches eggs in the class each spring and recruits me to help when they start hatching. I personally like to keep the opening where the beak is facing up where I can keep an eye on progress.

Again, my experience is much more limited than many experts here, so definitely wait for better advice (I just wanted to help take some of the worry off ).

I appreciate that! I just wasn’t expecting them to start for another day, at least, so it alarmed me a bit.

 

[slordaz]

I usually don't worry about humidity as much as not opening the incubator after lock down on day 18 unless humidity drops below 60%
@Ridgerunner got me through having such bad hatches and helped me curb the urge to meddle

 

[ACGM]

I usually don't worry about humidity as much as not opening the incubator after lock down on day 18 unless humidity drops below 60%
@Ridgerunner got me through having such bad hatches and helped me curb the urge to meddle

Well now I know the humidity can be slightly lower than what I have researched. In all my research, all of the sources said it should be around 80%. I candled last night and added water but only went up to 65% which is why I added more this morning. I have been very good about only opening it when I need to candle. I have an incubator with a mostly see through top so I can see what’s going on without looking. I am just going to let it be now and hope for the best. Thank you!

 

[slordaz]

Well now I know the humidity can be slightly lower than what I have researched. In all my research, all of the sources said it should be around 80%. I candled last night and added water but only went up to 65% which is why I added more this morning. I have been very good about only opening it when I need to candle. I have an incubator with a mostly see through top so I can see what’s going on without looking. I am just going to let it be now and hope for the best. Thank you!

well when they internally pip the humidity will spike, you could also run a humidifier in the room to help with some humidity, but even if humidity was 60% if several internally pipped at once it would spike to 80-100% humidity depending how full the incubator was