Chicks!

[bantamhill]

I awoke to the sweet sound of chicks this morning!

Michael

[John]

My second hatch came out overnight too.  Some of the photos aren\'t great, but I\'ll share a couple anyway.  First is a photo of LF buffs and then bantam lavenders.

[Guest]

I had a single chick hatch on Sunday and a few dozen more hatch Monday.  Still more pips in process last night.

[Blue Egg Acres]

The lavendar chicks are beautiful!
My first hatch took place this past Wed - Fri for a total of 47 beautiful wheaten/blue wheaten babies!

[Guest]

I\'m wondering ... if your flocks are just really getting going, do they lay heavy through the summer? Mine decline in summer, but go heavy through the winter.

[Guest]

How many times a day is it recommended to pull chicks from the hatching trays?  Opening the door causes the humidity to drop and therefore, increases the chances of stuck chicks.

On the other hand, all the chicks I\'ve hatched tend to be rambunctious and cause other eggs to roll over on top of the pip hole resulting in a stuck chick.  The only way to prevent this is to pull the chick, so we\'re back to the original problem of dried stuck chicks due to humidity drop.

Any happy medium to solve both problems (drying out and roll overs)?   It is very hard to resist the sound of chicks in the incubator.    

P.S.  I put dividers in the hatching trays to minimize the amount of space a hatched chick has to knock about and only put about 6 eggs per section, but still that doesn\'t prevent a hatched chick from bumping into the other five eggs.

[John]

How many times a day is it recommended to pull chicks from the hatching trays?

I do it twice a day, about every 12 hours after the majority start hatching.  To try to compensate for the drop in humidity I fill the water pan and overflow it just before shutting the door.  I always keep a spray bottle of water next to the hatchers and sometimes spray a mist of water on the inside of door before closing it.

I know the instructions generally say stop Turing the eggs on the 19th day, but I generally wait until they start to pip before moving them from the incubators to the hatchers.

[bantamhill]

I also do a lot of misting to keep the humidity up at the time of hatch.

I would minimize opening the door. I use the mesh bags used for laundry to seperate varieties and hatch eggs and I find the movement of the chicks to be minimized by the weight of the fabric . . . an idea to try.

Michael