I am incubating eggs for the first time. I am on day 12, so I have a few more days until we have new chicks. The question I have is, how long do I leave the chick in the bator before I put it out in my hatchery box? Being new to this, I only have 8 eggs in the bator. But the problem is, I set eggs on 3 different days. At first, my chickens wasn't laying a bunch of eggs. I set 2 eggs on the 15th, 5 eggs on the 21st, and 1 egg on the 22nd. They are all veining, so I don't want to remove them from the bator. What would be the best way to take care of the new born chicks? I know that they have to dry first, but my incubator doesn't have any air circulation and I don't want to starve the chicks for any air.
After hatching I leave the chicks in for another 24 hours, they don't need any feed for 48 hours. You must have a container that will be 95 degrees. Get a heat lamp at your local wally world, have the bottom of the container covered with either paper towels or pine shaving , don't use any slick paper or they will develop spraddle leg. I always dip there beak in water when placing in the brooder. Get some chick starter and you should be set to go. You will know the chicks are warm enough as they will not pile on each other but develope a circle around the outside of the center light from the heat bulb. The container can be a large cardboard box.
Since you have staggered the hatches you are going to need another incubator to put the eggs in when they reach day 18 or when they pip at the latest (day 20 ish). You have a few days to build or buy something. If you don't do that the eggs that are hatching will spread bacteria and probably kill the ones that have more time to cook. Besides the bacteria, the hatching eggs have different humidity needs than cooking eggs. I would think the February 20/21 sets of eggs are close enough to hatch together. I'm a novice too and I just set myself up in the same situation. See my thread on it here . I finally just bought a used second incubator to hatch in. As far as when to take them out...when they are fluffy and you don't expect any more eggs (from that batch!) to hatch. I have heard anything from 1 day to 4 days. During hatch time the air plugs should be both open.
Thanks. I made my incubator out of a styrofoam cooler. I think I have just a few bucks in it, so I guess I could make another one. I will go ahead and move the first two eggs into it around day 17. I have read that you are not suppose to turn the eggs after day 18 and the humidity is also suppose to be at the 65% range from day until they hatch.
You should not open an incubator or move eggs from day 18 until they are all done hatching. Doing so will drop the humidity and could kill the ones that haven't hatched yet. If you don't move at least one set of eggs you'll have problems. When the first ones hit day 18 you won't be able to open to turn the rest without risking harming them. You also can't remove the first chicks without risk. Chicks can stay in the incubator for a day or 2 because they can live off the yolk for about 3 days but if one hatches early from the first batch or late from the last you could have 4 days between them. So either way you risk one set or the other. That's why staggered hatches are bad and you need a 2nd incubator if you do that. If you get them split into 2 incubators then just wait until the hatch is done before removing the chicks to the brooder.
I did the same thing on my first try. I set eggs a week apart without realizing the humidity was different on the last 3 days. So I went to Green South and bought another bator....... You'll have to make another bator this week for the 15th eggs. I guess you're gonna have to treat the eggs from the 21st and 22nd as the same batch. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes. As we speak, I'm sitting here waiting on my last Ebay Rhode Island Whites to hatch. Geesh, they started at 3:30AM............ Hope your birds are doing OK (we swapped last weekend). Yours are fine although they don't seem to want to leave the coop to roam around. I prop the door open for them but they prefer to perch inside. They're fine though
