Thermometer on top of eggs during hatching?

[stinkysneakers]

This is my first ever hatch and I've got my first two pips! Eeeeek! I'm so excited! But my question is, the incubator instructions say to lay my thermometer on top of the eggs. Well what should I do when they start zipping and trying to push out? Will the thermometer laying on top of the eggs give them any trouble? Will it make it harder for them to hatch? Should I move it or remove it altogether? What do you veteran poultry parents think?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi, congrats on your first two pips nerve racking and exciting all rolled into one!!!! Is your thermometer heavy? If it isn't you could put it on top but I doubt it will stay there once your eggs start hatching. It does get quite rough and tumble in the incubator once hatch has started, chicks blundering round learning to walk. I have had chicks trying to hatch with other chicks sleeping on top of the egg. Good luck with your hatch.

 

[stinkysneakers]

Thank you! This morning I have eight more pips, I can hear several different peeps, and I have visual on a beak! It's not particularly heavy, maybe about the same weight as an egg. It's a glass one with a metal guard on it. Some other folks advised me that as long as the temperature has been good so far and I can resist fiddling with the setting on the thermostat, I'm alright to move it to the brooder to track the temperature there in preparation for the chicks being there. Hahaha! what a funny sight that must have been!