When to pull chickens out of incubator

Meca

Songster
6 Years
May 2, 2014
173
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126
right here.
I had two hatch Friday (day 20) and two yesterday (day 21) and one last night. I don't see any pips in the rest of the eggs. But when can I pull the baby chicks out of my incubator?
 
When they look ready, I always leave them at least 24 hours.

I would check the other eggs, Candle, if you are sure there are no holes in the eggs put them in a bowl of water and look for movement.

And the last thing I do is NOT approved by 99.8% of all hatchers, I break a little hole (at least 24 hours) after the last pip/hatch occurred in the air sac end and peek in with a candling light. If I see movement I zip the top and "help" a tad.

BUT I have had problems with birds going full term and not pipping, I think it is a humidity problem, and I would rather have a slim chance of a bird than no chance.

Good luck
 
I had two hatch Friday (day 20) and two yesterday (day 21) and one last night. I don't see any pips in the rest of the eggs. But when can I pull the baby chicks out of my incubator?
When to move your chicks to the brooder is a personal decision that should be based on your comfort level and the level of humidity in your bator. Some people are dead set against opening the incubator for any reason from lockdown until the hatch is over. Others like myself do not subscribe to that method and remove our chicks during the hatch. I now, remove mine as soon as they are starting to move around in there and become active. Once they get on their feet and start stretching out they go right in the brooder under the light to fluff and where they have electrolyte induced water and food. I have never left a chick in the incubator more than 12 hours, and that was because they were born at night. (Even then I don't think it was more than 8 hours.)

If you have adequate humidity in your bator (over 65%) and wish to remove your chicks, there is no reason why you shouldn't.
 
What she said!

It really is a personal decision, your comfort level counts. I keep mine in longer on the hopes the new chicks will stimulate the unhatched ones.

I try to not open the incubator, but I am strict on the rule. If I think I need to reach in, or I have a large chick picking on new ones, I reach in.
 
I typically wait longer if active hatching is going on. However, my last hatch....overnight a new hatch was smothered by the other chicks that hatched during the day
sad.png
. So, There can be risk either way, and in the future I will probably take my chicks out much sooner than I had before. I was heart broke to see the poor little hatched chick make it out then to be suffocated by his fellow hatch mates.


When they look ready, I always leave them at least 24 hours.

I would check the other eggs, Candle, if you are sure there are no holes in the eggs put them in a bowl of water and look for movement.

And the last thing I do is NOT approved by 99.8% of all hatchers, I break a little hole (at least 24 hours) after the last pip/hatch occurred in the air sac end and peek in with a candling light. If I see movement I zip the top and "help" a tad.

BUT I have had problems with birds going full term and not pipping, I think it is a humidity problem, and I would rather have a slim chance of a bird than no chance.

Good luck
I actually considered this. I have had several hatches where eggs were still alive after the hatch was pretty much over and the chick never hatched. Currently, I have three eggs left in my incubator. Once is a BCM egg that I'm pretty sure is gone. the rest of the chicks had hatched by Thursday (day 21) so I water candled them and the two other eggs (different breed) were still moving but no internal pip. There looked like they were behind in growing (appeared more room in the egg than usually by this time.). I put them back, but I was wondering if I should intervene or let nature take it's course.

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread, duluthralphie, brought up a hatching dilemma I was much curious about.
 
What she said!

It really is a personal decision, your comfort level counts. I keep mine in longer on the hopes the new chicks will stimulate the unhatched ones.

I try to not open the incubator, but I am strict on the rule. If I think I need to reach in, or I have a large chick picking on new ones, I reach in.
I play a video of chicks peeping, (Honestly I have found it motivates them better than live chicks. No idea why unless it is the tone of it electronically.) at the bator to replace the sounds of the chicks taken out. Plus my brooder is only feet from my incubator so they are still audible as well..lol

I typically wait longer if active hatching is going on. However, my last hatch....overnight a new hatch was smothered by the other chicks that hatched during the day
sad.png
. So, There can be risk either way, and in the future I will probably take my chicks out much sooner than I had before. I was heart broke to see the poor little hatched chick make it out then to be suffocated by his fellow hatch mates.


I actually considered this. I have had several hatches where eggs were still alive after the hatch was pretty much over and the chick never hatched. Currently, I have three eggs left in my incubator. Once is a BCM egg that I'm pretty sure is gone. the rest of the chicks had hatched by Thursday (day 21) so I water candled them and the two other eggs (different breed) were still moving but no internal pip. There looked like they were behind in growing (appeared more room in the egg than usually by this time.). I put them back, but I was wondering if I should intervene or let nature take it's course.

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread, duluthralphie, brought up a hatching dilemma I was much curious about.
I was leaving mine in for a few hours until they were somewhat dry (as long as there weren't more than 4-5) then I had TWO get hurt on my little giant's fan, one seriously-he almost scalped himself. I thought he would end up blind in one eye. His eye turned out ok, but he still has a slit in the "brow" that hangs loose. After that I said, nope. No reason to leave them in there. The hatch before that I had two get hurt, one got pushed during a game of king of the hill on the thermometer and chipped the beak, (there were 7-8 in there at the time) and another that was standing on the thermometer and stretched as high as he could right into the heating element. LG is no place for chicks to spend extended time. Plus I like mine out getting fortified water and feeding.
 
I typically wait longer if active hatching is going on. However, my last hatch....overnight a new hatch was smothered by the other chicks that hatched during the day
sad.png
. So, There can be risk either way, and in the future I will probably take my chicks out much sooner than I had before. I was heart broke to see the poor little hatched chick make it out then to be suffocated by his fellow hatch mates.


I actually considered this. I have had several hatches where eggs were still alive after the hatch was pretty much over and the chick never hatched. Currently, I have three eggs left in my incubator. Once is a BCM egg that I'm pretty sure is gone. the rest of the chicks had hatched by Thursday (day 21) so I water candled them and the two other eggs (different breed) were still moving but no internal pip. There looked like they were behind in growing (appeared more room in the egg than usually by this time.). I put them back, but I was wondering if I should intervene or let nature take it's course.

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread, duluthralphie, brought up a hatching dilemma I was much curious about.
I was leaving mine in for a few hours until they were somewhat dry (as long as there weren't more than 4-5) then I had TWO get hurt on my little giant's fan, one seriously-he almost scalped himself. I thought he would end up blind in one eye. His eye turned out ok, but he still has a slit in the "brow" that hangs loose. After that I said, nope. No reason to leave them in there. The hatch before that I had two get hurt, one got pushed during a game of king of the hill on the thermometer and chipped the beak, (there were 7-8 in there at the time) and another that was standing on the thermometer and stretched as high as he could right into the heating element. LG is no place for chicks to spend extended time. Plus I like mine out getting fortified water and feeding.
I noticed the over head space in the LG is much lower than other incubators of the same type. I was worried about them getting burned on the element. Mine is old of course and designed different than the new hovabator I have. Not sure if the new LG has just as low of a clearance or not?
 
I noticed the over head space in the LG is much lower than other incubators of the same type. I was worried about them getting burned on the element. Mine is old of course and designed different than the new hovabator I have. Not sure if the new LG has just as low of a clearance or not?
I have the older one. 9200, so I can not answer. I know the heating element in the new ones are centralized and do not run around the top of the bator and I THINK (could be wrong) the new fan kits for those have guards on the fans as well.
 
Well, I opened my incubator and it's a good thing I did! Three chicks had externally pipped the shells but died trying to make it out! Four more were still living so I helped them out. 3 are completely healthy and one has a crooked neck. im going to watch the one with the crooked neck. It was having a lot of issues walking yesterday but today seemed stronger.
Since this was my second time hatching chickens I'm just happy that I got some babies at all.

Thanks everyone!
 
Well, I opened my incubator and it's a good thing I did! Three chicks had externally pipped the shells but died trying to make it out! Four more were still living so I helped them out. 3 are completely healthy and one has a crooked neck. im going to watch the one with the crooked neck. It was having a lot of issues walking yesterday but today seemed stronger.
Since this was my second time hatching chickens I'm just happy that I got some babies at all.

Thanks everyone!


Grats on the babies.

Pictures are in order.

Any idea why those the pipped did not make it out?
 

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