She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[Cockatrice6420]

RavynFallen - here's a pic of home for you. PNW is in your blood, you know it calls you!

 

[RubyNala97]

I'd give them another two days.  Turn the light back on.  As long as they are almost full, they were still growing.

X2. They could just be a couple days behind. And movement is harder to see as they get fuller.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Honestly since you have concerns, I think it will be ok to open and check really quick. I had the heater in my incubator go out and it was blowing cold air on all the pips for an hour or two and there were no issues with the membrane. You don't have external pips, it will be ok.

I roll my eyes when I see someone warn that opening the bator will certainly cause shrink wrapped chicks and compromise your hatch. I'm telling you, if you saw how often I opened my bator during hatch most people would

. I seriously (knock on wood and all that other jazz) have NEVER lost a pipper or zipper and I have only ever lost once assisted hatcher (and that was over a week later to what I was pretty sure was digestive problems). I don't understand how people conclude that a membrane can "shrink wrap" within a matter of moments. Not true shrink wrap. I can understand the theory of them getting glued by the membrane drying to them when too much air flows across, but you have to have pretty low humidity for that in the first place. I honestly feel that the warning of "shrinkwrap" was born from someone having a bad hatch after opening and with no explanation went with the opening the bator, so the next person went with that. I'm not saying (before someone jumps on me) that there is no threat or that it isn't better to leave things alone. I am an extreme and except for the fact that I really feel it neccessary to remove my chicks before they are scalped, I don't HAVE to be as hands on as I am. I just hate seeing people scared to open a bator when they really feel they need to open it or that if they candle after lockdown they are going to "kill" their chicks. It sucks watching someone come to the conclusion that they killed all their chicks because they opened the bator for 45 seconds and have that guilt when chances are it was something totally different that compromised their hatch. I feel like it's the Krampus story of the hatching world.

 

[FridayYet]

I think you really have to know your incubator, your incubator humidity level, your ambient humidity level and how fast your incubator humidity recovers.

If you are having trouble keeping your humidity up in a cheap, unregulated incubator in an area with really low humidity, I believe that opening the bator while chicks are pipped can definitely lead to sticky chicks - especially for those people who have to check every egg, all the time, and don't even know their true humidity level.

Therefore, if you are not sure I think it is way better to leave the incubator closed.

 

[RubyNala97]

My first two hatches, I was sacred to death to open the incubator during lockdown and put the fear of God into everyone in the house that they would kill the other eggs if they opened it. Because that's what I had read. But then I kept reading posts about people seeing and hearing internal pips! Thanks to you, mainly, and others I now know it's ok if I have to open it up for a sec. After my heater went out and was blowing cold air on them I kept thinking about a hen sitting on eggs on a cool, windy day. I bet she lifts her butt up throughout the day to get comfortable and check on her eggs. She even pecks at them when they are peeping. This would allow the outside air to occasionally blow over pipped eggs. Like you said, I wouldn't open it for no reason and every 5 minutes. But I agree it's ok if you have too. Especially without pips!

 

[WalnutHill]

It's possible that the thick membrane on turkey eggs may be more susceptible, but my experience with incubators that don't hold humidity well is that circulated air incubators do lose a GREAT deal of humidity when opened and I had many pipped and partially zipped eggs where the exposed membrane dried stiff or stuck to the chick. The hatches were complicated by too much moisture early on which made for sticky chicks at hatch, but the stiff, leathery membrane was definitely caused by humidity loss. Before opening the incubator, there was a little condensation at the corner of the windows and my instruments were calibrated.

If I incubated in my greenhouse room, or in the bathroom where I could run the shower, I would be less hesitant to open it. But my office is generally around 25-35% RH and that is not good for hatching.

 

[rossfam06]

Wow! I'm not big on the solid white, but that one is some kind of fabulous!!! They are all lovely! Did you say how old they are?

x2

Those aren't whites, lol... Silver/Splash... and they are very pretty...

The Snowy pair is this years hatch and I thjnk the rest are last years hatches...

Lady Grey's mom is in the last pic, the 3 greys... we're not sure which one, but I think the far left one is most likely...

I want some of those splash calls. Beautiful!!!! Lol!!!!

On another note....I sold my 4 cockerels today at the swap. I'm happy that I have 4 less mouths to feed.

 

[meganhundley]

There was a swap here today too but I didn't make it to it That's probably a good thing though :/

 

[Cockatrice6420]

It's possible that the thick membrane on turkey eggs may be more susceptible, but my experience with incubators that don't hold humidity well is that circulated air incubators do lose a GREAT deal of humidity when opened and I had many pipped and partially zipped eggs where the exposed membrane dried stiff or stuck to the chick.  The hatches were complicated by too much moisture early on which made for sticky chicks at hatch, but the stiff, leathery membrane was definitely caused by humidity loss.  Before opening the incubator, there was a little condensation at the corner of the windows and my instruments were calibrated.

If I incubated in my greenhouse room, or in the bathroom where I could run the shower, I would be less hesitant to open it.  But my office is generally around 25-35% RH and that is not good for hatching.

Do you have room in the kitchen where dish washing and boiling water are done?

 

[RubyNala97]

It's possible that the thick membrane on turkey eggs may be more susceptible, but my experience with incubators that don't hold humidity well is that circulated air incubators do lose a GREAT deal of humidity when opened and I had many pipped and partially zipped eggs where the exposed membrane dried stiff or stuck to the chick.  The hatches were complicated by too much moisture early on which made for sticky chicks at hatch, but the stiff, leathery membrane was definitely caused by humidity loss.  Before opening the incubator, there was a little condensation at the corner of the windows and my instruments were calibrated.

If I incubated in my greenhouse room, or in the bathroom where I could run the shower, I would be less hesitant to open it.  But my office is generally around 25-35% RH and that is not good for hatching.

Yeah, you have to kinda gauge when is a good time. I try not to open after I have pips. But during this last hatch when I had a few hatching at the same time, my humidity went up to 95%! I actually panicked a little and opened it to get shells out a flip back over pips that were knocked over, and release a little of the humidity. It really depends on the incubator and ambient humidity too.