Unsecure chicken perches

[AJuff]

We are hatching chicks at school in a RCom Pro20 incubator. Two days into the incubation programme the electrician came into school and turned of the power for 5 mins so I reset the incubator. The display now says 6 days to hatch but actually it's only four.

 

Turning should stop three days before hatching and humidity be raised higher. As the incubator is two days out humidity and turning won't stop until hatch day. Is this a problem? Or should I go into school at the weekend and stop the turning and turn up the humidity?

 

Not sure what the reason is about stopping the turning three day before hatch? Also why humidity raises before hatch?

[Purplemaniacs]

I am no expert having only done one hatch but if I was you I would go in and stop the turning and increase the humidity. Having said that Tumble hatched on day 17 and I was still tuning and had not added any water to increase the humidity and Tumble was fine

 

How lovely to hatch at school I would love to do that for school next year.

 

I am sure someone will be along with better advice

 

Chrissie

[Melbourne12]

We use an R-com 20 Pro. Indeed, we've just set 20 eggs in it as of yesterday!

 

Unless it's an old model, you shouldn't need to reset it after a power outage. It will resume automatically from where it left off.

 

However, in your current circumstances, I would reset it at the start of day 19 (I guess it will say D Day - 5 when it should say D Day -3) so that temp=37.0C, humidity=60% and turning=off. You'll have to use the menu and the up/down keys to set it. It's a bit of a faff, or maybe it's just me that finds it not very intuitive!

 

As incubation stops and hatching commences, we remove the tray of eggs very gently, and put a non-slip mat on the grey floor of the R-com, then arrange the eggs around the non-slip mat. As the chicks hatch out, they'll be safe while they dry out and won't get splayed legs. We normally move the chicks to the brooder after 12 to 18 hours, but they'll be OK for 24 hours.

 

ETA: Since the timing is two whole day out, I think it really is necessary to stop the turning at the very least. The hatch rate of the chicks will be diminished, and it seems such a shame for the embryo to have progressed so far, and then be denied the chance of life. Plus the low humidity (incubation level of 45% instead of hatching level of 60%) during hatching will weaken the chicks by dehydrating them unnecessarily.

 

But worst of all, if any hatch 24 hours early, which is quite common, there's a real danger that as they're drying out their little legs will be dragged under the egg tray or the edge of the incubator by the R-com's moving floor, breaking their toes or even their legs.

[Redwing]

I agree, reset it manually to the correct day

 

I agree that the chicks feet could get caught but in all the hatches I have done I remain unconvinced on the stopping turning at day18 being vital

 

The thinking is that it gives the chick time to correctly align itself for hatching but I have found that they hatch just as well if they are still being turned. several times I have had batches hatch while the turner is still on (my bad record keeping) and in fact last night i moved 25 already pipping eggs to the hatching tray of my inccy from the turning racks! also the first chick out bashes the other eggs around anyway