What do I do? Hatching chicks.

[ohnoicantfly]

One of my chicks is hatching right now (or it has already, I haven't opened the incubator yet) and I'm not sure what to do next. A friend who gave me the incubator told me not to open the incubator at all during hatching, but every site says remove the chicks once they've absorbed the yolk and blood vessels. What do I do? I don't want to endanger the life of my chicken babies

 

[bobbi-j]

Can you see in the incubator? Can you post pictures of your setup? It won’t hurt to leave the chick in the incubator for a bit after it hatches. It’s OK to quickly open it one and then to remove chicks that have hatched. The concern is that if it’s open too often or for long, the membranes may dry out on other chicks that are hatching, causing them to become “shrink wrapped”. How many eggs are there?

 

[ChickNanny13]

Do you have a brooder ready (heat) for the chicks?
2x @bobbi-j

 

[nuthatched]

If there's room they can stay in the incubator, if not, put them in the brooder. Opening the lid won't hurt them as long as you dont leave the lid off for for awhile.

 

[ohnoicantfly]

I decided to just take the chicks out. They're doing okay in the brooder now.

 

[BastyPutt]

I decided to just take the chicks out. They're doing okay in the brooder now.

The rule of thumb is to let the chicks dry in the incubator, while everyone else hatches. Quickly opening the bator and removing dry chicks isn't going to shrink wrap the chicks currently hatching. Leaving the bator open for 10 or 15 minutes is when you are endangering them.

With that said, chicks can live off of the absorbed yolk for 72 hours after hatching. I know they seem uncomfortable in the bator, but I will typically leave them in there until I am certain everyone is done, or at 48 hours when they have left the egg.