so important do not open the incubator!

[mrssmith84]

Long night. I used my little giant for the first time. I'm used to using my mini advance and doing small batches. Once 12 hours past I opened the incubator set 26 in the brooder. Let another 20 hatch and took those out also. After a few more hours the ones that were moving were not anymore. 7 dried out in there shell. once I realised the huge mistake I made I was able to save 11 more by peeling the shell back, peeling the first membrane back and wetting the 2nd membrane and setting them back in until the blood vessels were no longer visible, and rolling that membrane back and letting them hatch the rest of the way on their own. I was up till 3 am and I still had over 24 eggs left checking the rest now. Huge mistake I will learn from.

 

[scflock]

Long night. I used my little giant for the first time. I'm used to using my mini advance and doing small batches. Once 12 hours past I opened the incubator set 26 in the brooder. Let another 20 hatch and took those out also. After a few more hours the ones that were moving were not anymore. 7 dried out in there shell.

once I realised the huge mistake I made I was able to save 11 more by peeling the shell back, peeling the first membrane back and wetting the 2nd membrane and setting them back in until the blood vessels were no longer visible, and rolling that membrane back and letting them hatch the rest of the way on their own. I was up till 3 am and I still had over 24 eggs left

checking the rest now. Huge mistake I will learn from.

There is a world of difference going from a Brinsea to styrofoam. I'm a Brinsea guy, but there are people that know tricks to be successful in styrofoam, including quickly bringing the incubator humidity back up. You should check out this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/978237/she-said-he-said-whos-right-whos-wrong-no-one
I think you would enjoy it. It's a huge thread, and the pages advance pretty quickly, so don't feel like you have to read the whole thing before posting, just jump right in. There are a lot of different regulars on that thread, with a wide array of incubators, and we all talk about our different techniques that work for us. The point of the thread is that there's no one right way to do things. I hatch in a Brinsea, am totally hands off, never assist a hatch, and leave the chicks in there until the hatch is complete. Others are much more hands on, assist hatches, and take chicks out as they hatch. We don't argue, we just try and show that both methods can be successful, and you learn what works for you and stick with it

 

[AmyLynn2374]

There is a world of difference going from a Brinsea to styrofoam. I'm a Brinsea guy, but there are people that know tricks to be successful in styrofoam, including quickly bringing the incubator humidity back up. You should check out this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/978237/she-said-he-said-whos-right-whos-wrong-no-one
I think you would enjoy it. It's a huge thread, and the pages advance pretty quickly, so don't feel like you have to read the whole thing before posting, just jump right in. There are a lot of different regulars on that thread, with a wide array of incubators, and we all talk about our different techniques that work for us. The point of the thread is that there's no one right way to do things. I hatch in a Brinsea, am totally hands off, never assist a hatch, and leave the chicks in there until the hatch is complete. Others are much more hands on, assist hatches, and take chicks out as they hatch. We don't argue, we just try and show that both methods can be successful, and you learn what works for you and stick with it

xs 2

I open the bator frequently during hatch to remove chicks shells, assist when needed and I even rearrange my eggs when they get knocked over so I can't see the pip. Have never lost a pipper/zipper. It's rare that opening the bator with adequate humidity will compromise hatches and many times "opening the bator" gets blamed for losses that in reality, most likely had nothing to do with opening the bator. Yes, there are many believers out there that swear opening the bator is certain death. And that's fine to be hands off and to explain to newbies why they are hands off and their beliefs, but there's a flip side to that too and many of us that are very much hands on and do not loose chicks because of it. I open more during hatch than I probably do during the whole incubation. My last two hatches have been 92 and 100% hatch from lockdown.

 

[FridayYet]

xs 2

I open the bator frequently during hatch to remove chicks shells, assist when needed and I even rearrange my eggs when they get knocked over so I can't see the pip. Have never lost a pipper/zipper. It's rare that opening the bator with adequate humidity will compromise hatches and many times "opening the bator" gets blamed for losses that in reality, most likely had nothing to do with opening the bator. Yes, there are many believers out there that swear opening the bator is certain death. And that's fine to be hands off and to explain to newbies why they are hands off and their beliefs, but there's a flip side to that too and many of us that are very much hands off and do not loose chicks because of it. I open more during hatch than I probably do during the whole incubation. My last two hatches have been 92 and 100% hatch from lockdown.

Amy's the humidity queen, especially with styrofoam incubators.

(Those of us that don't have the time or inclination to monitor and adjust styrofoam incubators, stick with the Brinsea.)

 

[scflock]

(Those of us that don't have the time or inclination to monitor and adjust styrofoam incubators, stick with the Brinsea.)

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Amy's the humidity queen, especially with styrofoam incubators.

(Those of us that don't have the time or inclination to monitor and adjust styrofoam incubators, stick with the Brinsea.)

LMAO

You guys kill me.