Too Many Chicks?! - Incubating Question

[Bowslayer2]

Morning,
I put in 120 chicken eggs and they are now hatching. The hatch date was today about 7 Mountain time. They started hatching yesterday and as of now we have about 50 chicks in the cabinet incubator....like I can accurately count them all! There are numerous ones piping.

My question is .....Do I open the incubator and remove the chicks to "clear" them out so they give room for the others hatching or do I just leave them in there till Sunday or Monday to wait for the others to hatch? Will it hurt the other chicks that have not hatched if the incubator/brooder were opened up to remove the hatched chicks? I have a cabinet incubator and brooder. The incubator still has 60 turkey eggs in it being turned automatically each day, So I took the chicken eggs out on day 18 and moved them to the cabinet brooder to hatch...now they are and lots of them!

Please advise on what I should do and when to remove the hatch chicks.
thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different people do different things. As practically always there is no one right way to do this where everything else is wrong.

The chicks can live for at least three days without food or drink because they absorb the yolk, sometimes as long as five days, but count on three. That’s why they can be shipped in the mail. From that aspect, there is no rush to remove them.

Some people get really concerned when the first chicks start playing rugby with the unhatched eggs while some of us aren’t all that concerned about it. The professionals that may hatch 1,000,000 chicks a week aren’t all that concerned about it but they have a few other factors to consider. I’m certainly not a professional hatching on that scale.

Now, the big scary factor. It is possible if you open the incubator when eggs have pipped that you can shrink-wrap a chick. That’s where the membrane that surrounds the chick inside the egg dries out and shrinks around it so it cannot move to hatch. This does not happen each and every time you open the incubator after eggs have pipped. It seldom happens but it can possibly happen. Different things can lead to it such as a low humidity while you are incubating so the membrane is a bit on the dry side to start with. How long the incubator is open, how much moisture is lost while it is open, and how fast it returns to a higher humidity when closed all play a part.

I consider it good practice to not open the incubator during lockdown because it is possible something bad could possibly happen, but if I have what I consider a good reason I will open the incubator at this time. Some people mist the eggs with warm water when they open it to minimize the risk. Some people take a small portable incubator into the bathroom, run the shower on hot, and wait until it is really steamy before they open it. I don’t do either of those things and it has only been a problem once.

I can’t tell you what to do. It’s a personal choice. You’ll probably be OK if you remove them but there is a risk. I just don’t know how much of a risk in your specific circumstances.

Good luck!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I agree. It's a personal choice. One that should be based on your comfort level and the level of humidity in your bator and how quickly your bator can recover humidity after opened. I hatch in an older fan forced lg. I keep my humidity high after lockdown. Once a couple of chicks are hatched I started moving them to the brooder. The larger the hatch, the more often I'm pulling out the chicks.