To all the happy hatchers:
Just a warning. In the frenzy to keep the humidity high enough, and monitor the temp... as well as the occasional need to isolate an egglet or chicklet in the incubator during lock down, sometimes safety gets overlooked. Those babies, once they have escaped the shell, seem to be determined to find ways to kill themselves. Look at your bator through the eyes of a clumsy newborn chick. Got a thermometer in there? Can the chick tip it over? Got a dish of water? The chick will try to go swimming. A chick, newly hatched, can drown in a teaspoon full of water. Any loose shreds of styrofoam, paper towel? Any tin-foil (I use it in my bator to direct air flow) that will be attractive to busy little beaks? Any temp probe cords that the chick can get tangled up in? Any containers to separate chicks/eggs? Chicks seek out little spots, and can become stuck, possibly even to the point of suffocation. I had a chick dive through the handle of a coffee cup that was being used to hold an other chick in the middle of an assisted hatch. Now, the little acrobatic mug handle diver would have been completely successful with his first dive, except he was still dragging the bottom half of his shell around by the umbilical cord at the time he did his dive. I found him, the next morning, with feet straight up in the air, still dangling by the umbilical cord, which was still attached to the egg shell. Believe it or not, I cut him loose, put some betadine on his little belly button... which was quite stretched out at this time... and he's done fine ever since. So, a word to the wise: check for any opportunity for your chicks to cause injury to themselves or their hatch mates!
Just a warning. In the frenzy to keep the humidity high enough, and monitor the temp... as well as the occasional need to isolate an egglet or chicklet in the incubator during lock down, sometimes safety gets overlooked. Those babies, once they have escaped the shell, seem to be determined to find ways to kill themselves. Look at your bator through the eyes of a clumsy newborn chick. Got a thermometer in there? Can the chick tip it over? Got a dish of water? The chick will try to go swimming. A chick, newly hatched, can drown in a teaspoon full of water. Any loose shreds of styrofoam, paper towel? Any tin-foil (I use it in my bator to direct air flow) that will be attractive to busy little beaks? Any temp probe cords that the chick can get tangled up in? Any containers to separate chicks/eggs? Chicks seek out little spots, and can become stuck, possibly even to the point of suffocation. I had a chick dive through the handle of a coffee cup that was being used to hold an other chick in the middle of an assisted hatch. Now, the little acrobatic mug handle diver would have been completely successful with his first dive, except he was still dragging the bottom half of his shell around by the umbilical cord at the time he did his dive. I found him, the next morning, with feet straight up in the air, still dangling by the umbilical cord, which was still attached to the egg shell. Believe it or not, I cut him loose, put some betadine on his little belly button... which was quite stretched out at this time... and he's done fine ever since. So, a word to the wise: check for any opportunity for your chicks to cause injury to themselves or their hatch mates!
