Removing chicks from bator halfway through hatch

[Chickrockette]

Hi everyone! I'd really appreciate a little bit of input on this! I'm hatching ten bantams at an assisted living facility where I volunteer. Our first two (the residents named them Faith and Hope!) hatched yesterday and it sounds like three more today from the reports that I'm getting. I'm scheduled to do a presentation about them today and I know the residents would love to be able to see the process of moving the new chicks to their new container, and possibly getting to hold them. However, I know the dangers of opening the incubator when some of them are not hatched (but presumably some or all have internally pipped).

What are your thoughts? It's quite warm and humid there. If open the bator just for 20 seconds or so, and add enough water to bring the humidity back up into the 60s, do you think it's safe to remove the new hatchlings?

Thank you very much. I'm quite nervous about potentially causing harm to the unhatched chicks...all the moreso in front of this audience!

 

[keith92]

I hatch all the time and in and out of my hatcher. Youll be fine

 

[Chickrockette]

I hatch all the time and in and out of my hatcher. Youll be fine

Thank you so much Keith!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I hatch all the time and in and out of my hatcher. Youll be fine

Xs 2 I'm a hands on hatcher. I open frequently during hatch. I remove chicks as they become active in the bator to put them in the brooder. I take out shells and roll the eggs back over that have been knocked around from the hatchers and I candle all the way through so I can tell who has internally pipped. I keep my humidity between 70-75% and I keep a wet sponge in the incubator so when/if it dips to 65% or less, all I need to do is rewet the sponge if it's drying and boost the humidity back up.

 

[wynn4578]

X3 I take chicks out as they dry off when my incubator is going sometimes I could be hatching as much as 160 chicks. I don't wait for them all to hatch before removing the dry chicks.

 

[Chickrockette]

Xs 2 I'm a hands on hatcher. I open frequently during hatch. I remove chicks as they become active in the bator to put them in the brooder. I take out shells and roll the eggs back over that have been knocked around from the hatchers and I candle all the way through so I can tell who has internally pipped. I keep my humidity between 70-75% and I keep a wet sponge in the incubator so when/if it dips to 65% or less, all I need to do is rewet the sponge if it's drying and boost the humidity back up.

Awesome! I totally was able to do this with no prob today and even opened it up again to give a little help to one that had zipped and just needed her top poked off a little bit. Put back in damp paper towel and the humidity was actually over 70 when I left tonight. Hopefully our last four will make their way into the world overnight!

 

[Chickrockette]

X3 I take chicks out as they dry off when my incubator is going sometimes I could be hatching as much as 160 chicks. I don't wait for them all to hatch before removing the dry chicks.

Wow! I honestly cannot even imagine doing 160! kudos!

 

[Chickrockette]

Thank you so much to everyone for your great responses. We had 6 of th 10 hatch successfully. The others looked great and fully formed but never internally pipped (just did eggtopsies). Don't think this was because of opening the bator though....just a fluke.

 

[wynn4578]

Thank you so much to everyone for your great responses. We had 6 of th 10 hatch successfully. The others looked great and fully formed but never internally pipped (just did eggtopsies). Don't think this was because of opening the bator though....just a fluke.

Glad that 6 turned out. No matter how good the equipment or experienced the person, sometimes some eggs just don't hatch. The best we can do is continue to learn and apply it to the next batch.

Congratulations on the new chicks!

 

[Chickrockette]

thank you so much! I've been so busy with them I forgot to post an update. Of the six we got, four are still around and doing well at almost 3 weeks now... one of them appears to have drowned in the water dish, so I learned a hard lesson that way.....