When to Remove Chicks from the Incubator
by Alexa Lehr | The Pioneer Chicks | June 27, 2023
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If everything goes as planned during a hatch, you shouldn’t have a problem with knowing when to take the fluffy youngsters out of the incubator and move them to a brooder. However, sometimes hatch day gets prolonged or complications arise. That’s when you need to know the best time to remove the hatched chicks without ruining the rest of the hatch. If chicks are left in the incubator too long, they could become dehydrated and die. If they are taken out of the incubator too soon, they may not be fluffed out enough and could get chilled and die. But don’t worry, I’m going to share some helpful tips so you can make the best decision when it comes to moving your chicks from the incubator to the brooder!

Normal Hatch (24 hrs)

During a normal chick hatch, all the eggs that have developed should pip and hatch within 24-36 hours. There may be big breaks between the time the chick pips the eggshell and when it finishes unzipping to hatch, but all the chicks should hatch within a reasonable amount of time from each other.

When a chick hatches, its down feathers will be damp from the moisture within the egg. The dampness is essential for helping the shell membrane not dry out as the chick is hatching (proper hatching humidity is essential too). However, the damp down feathers must dry out before the chick can be removed from the incubator. If the chick is removed from the incubator too soon, it can easily become chilled and die.

Just because all the chicks have hatched, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can move all the chicks to the brooder right away. You need to wait until the last chick to hatch has had time to fluff out. ‘Fluffing out’ refers to allowing a chick’s down feathers to dry and become fluffy. All the chicks must be dry and fluffed out before you move them to the brooder.

Humidity & Fluffing Out

Ensuring that the proper humidity levels are maintained during the hatch is important for helping chicks fluff out in a timely manner. If the humidity is too high, the down feathers won’t dry as fast. When a chick’s down feathers don’t fluff out in time, the chick could become too chilled and die. However, you also want the humidity to be high enough that the shell membranes don’t dry out as chicks hatch. The ideal hatching humidity range is between 65-70% humidity.

Proper humidity levels will help the hatched chicks fluff out quickly but also prevent the unhatched chicks from becoming trapped from a dried out shell membrane. Once all the chicks have fluffed out, you can move them to the brooder where they should have food, water, and a heat source!

How Can Chicks Survive in the Incubator?

While it may be tempting to remove the hatched chicks as soon as possible, it is important to have patience through the fluffing out period. Chicks can safely stay in the incubator for up to 48 hours after hatching.

Prior to hatching, a chick will finish absorbing the egg yolk within the egg. A chick can survive on the nutrients from the egg yolk for up to 3 days. However, it is best for a chick to start eating and drinking as soon as possible and ideally within 48 hours of hatching.

Leaving hatched chicks in the incubator while other eggs are still hatching actually encourages the chicks who are still inside the eggs to pip and hatch. This is what naturally occurs when a broody hen hatches chicks. However, sometimes hatched chicks can be rough on the other eggs. They may be curious and start pecking at a pip or at a newly hatched chick.

It is helpful to keep the incubator in a dark location during hatch time. When chicks hatch under a mama hen, it is dark under her feathers which discourages movement and prevents pecking. This is especially important if you have an incubator that has a clear viewing window for watching the hatch. Large cabinet incubators are usually dark inside anyways since they have little to no windows. Even though you want the incubator dark, don’t cover the incubator with a towel or blanket. Covering the incubator could prevent proper ventilation or insulate the incubator and cause it to become too hot.

Late Hatch (after 21 days)

Things get tricky when the hatch doesn’t follow a normal hatching pattern. In some cases, the hatch may be a late hatch, a draggy hatch, or a difficult hatch. Waiting for all the chicks to hatch and fluff out before moving them to a brooder may be impossible without jeopardizing their health.

During a late hatch, the chicks don’t show signs of hatching until after 21 days of incubation, which is the normal incubation period for chicken eggs. In some cases, a late hatch may not start until 3 or 4 days after the expected hatch date!

Late hatches usually lead to draggy hatches. Draggy hatches are when it takes longer than 36 hours for all the eggs to hatch. Draggy and late hatches are usually characterized by many of the embryos failing to hatch even if they are fully developed or have pipped the eggshell.

Causes of a late hatch include:

• large eggs– large eggs take longer to incubate than small eggs
• long storage– the longer eggs are stored prior to incubation, the longer they may take to hatch
• incubation temperature– low incubation temperatures will prolong the hatch
• high humidity– high humidity will prevent the proper moisture evaporation from the eggs and prolong incubation
• weak embryos– weak embryos won’t hatch promptly and are usually a result of nutritional deficiencies in the parent’s diet
• breeder flock– an inbred breeding flock or an old breeding flock can contribute to late hatches

In general, a chick (embryo) will finish absorbing the yolk sac around day 20-21 of incubation. That means from that point on, the chick is surviving off of the nutrients from the egg yolk. The longer a chick takes to hatch, the less reserves it has to survive on after it hatches. The egg yolk is being utilized prior to the chick completely hatching.

During a late hatch, you will want to move the chicks to a warm brooder as soon as possible, but still wait until they are mostly fluffed out. You may decide to remove the hatched chicks in shifts, which we will discuss in a minute.

Draggy Hatch (24-48 hrs)

During a draggy hatch, you may need to remove chicks from the incubator in shifts. Waiting for the last chick to hatch and fluff out could mean the first chick to hatch has been in the incubator for longer than 48 hours. While a chick can survive for over 48 hours on the egg yolk, it can become dehydrated or malnourished quickly if it is not getting enough nutrition.

When removing chicks in shifts, only remove chicks that have completely fluffed out. Avoid opening the incubator when other eggs are pipped or hatching. It may be necessary to remove fluffed out chicks even when other eggs have pipped, but don’t remove chicks if those eggs are unzipping or hatching.

Opening the incubator to remove fluffed out chicks will cause a sudden drop in temperature and humidity. A prolonged drop in humidity can cause the shell membranes to dry out and trap unhatched chicks in their eggs. The temperature and humidity must be brought back up as soon as possible to prevent jeopardizing the unhatched chicks. The incubator should return to a stable temperature on its own, and if you have a fully automatic incubator, it may even stabilize the humidity level as well.

However, for incubators that don’t automatically control the humidity, you may need to implement some methods to help bring the humidity level up quickly.

Tips for Restoring Incubator Humidity:

• place a small, damp towel or sponge in the incubator
• use lukewarm water to dampen sponges or fill the water pots
• fill additional water pots, pans, or grooves in the incubator
• increase ambient humidity in the incubating room

During a draggy hatch, avoid opening the incubator to remove hatched chicks too many times. In general, aim for removing chicks about halfway through the hatch when the hatch is draggy. When about half of the developed eggs have hatched and the chicks are fluffed out, you can remove those chicks then wait for the remainder of the chicks to hatch and fluff out.

When removing fluffed out chicks, work quickly and minimize how long you leave the incubator open.

Causes of a draggy hatch include:

• different egg sizes– small eggs hatch sooner than large eggs
• egg storage– eggs stored for longer periods of time will take longer to hatch
• strains & breeds– eggs set at the same time from breed or strains that have slightly different incubation periods can lead to a draggy hatch
• breeder age– eggs from young and old breeders tend to cause draggy hatches
• uneven temperature– uneven temperature throughout the incubator will cause eggs to hatch at different times
• temperature swings– temperature that are too high or too low during incubation or hatching can lead to a draggy hatch

Difficult Hatch (48+ hrs)

A difficult hatch is usually a draggy hatch as well. However, during a difficult hatch, some of the chicks may have difficulty hatching. Difficult hatches can result from late hatches, draggy hatches, opening the incubator too many times during the hatch, chicks that are in the improper hatching position, or eggs with misplaced air cells.

During draggy or difficult hatches it may be tempting to help a chick hatch. Don’t do it! Avoid helping a chick hatch as much as possible and never help a chick hatch if it hasn’t already pipped the shell. Check out my article on How to Tell is a Chick Needs Help Hatching for more tips on help-outs.

You will probably need to remove chicks in shift during a difficult. Again, make sure all of the chicks you remove are fluffed out and don’t remove the chicks when other chicks are unzipping or hatching. Aim for one chick removal halfway through a difficult hatch, but sometimes two removals are necessary if the difficult hatch lasts longer than 3-4 days.

Sticky Hatchlings:

Sometimes difficult hatches can lead to sticky hatchlings. A sticky hatchling is covered in wet or dried embryo waste that causes the down feather to not fluff out properly. To help a sticky hatchling, you will need to rinse the hatchling off under warm water. A gentle stream of warm water from a faucet is usually all that is needed to rinse off the goo.

Do the rinse-off as quickly as possible and then wrap the chick in an absorbent towel. Using paper towel to absorb the initial wetness then switching to a dry cotton towel is often helpful for facilitating drying. Once the chick is as dry as possible, place it back in the incubator to allow it to finish fluffing out. Alternatively, you can place it in a warm brooder under a heat source if you think the chick can stay warm enough while its down feathers dry.

Causes of sticky hatchlings include:

• too low humidity
• eggs stored too long
• incubating too large of eggs for the breed
• temperature too low during incubation
• inadequate ventilation

Shell Sticks to Hatchling:

Another problem that may occur during a difficult hatch is when eggshell remains stuck to a hatched chick. In most cases, the membrane that is causing the eggshell to stick to the chick’s down feathers will eventually dry out and the eggshell will fall off. However, sometimes the eggshell will inhibit the chick from fluffing out all the way.

It is okay to remove a chick from the incubator that has eggshell stuck to its down feathers as long as the rest of the down feathers are fluffed out. Once the eggshell falls off the chick’s feathers will fluff out the rest of the way.

The same causes for sticky hatchlings can also contribute to eggshell sticking to a chick, but here are a few additional causes:

• humidity too low during egg storage prior to incubation
• poor egg quality can lead to dry egg shell membranes

Dead in Incubator

The dreaded outcome of a draggy or difficult hatch is finding your hatchlings dead in the incubator. The most common causes for chicks to die in the incubator include the temperature being too high, insufficient ventilation in the incubator, and dehydration.

Temperature & Humidity

Make sure you pat careful attention to the incubator’s temperature and humidity levels during the hatch, especially if you are removing chicks in shifts during a draggy hatch. A spike in temperature can cause chicks to overheat and die. A prolonged dip in temperature can cause the chicks to become chilled if they are not fluffed out. I like to decrease the incubator temperature by .5-1° as soon as I see the first pip since the activity from hatching often generates heat.

Ventilation

You should also make sure the incubator has good ventilation during the hatch. Ventilation allows old air to be exchanged for fresh air and ensures the hatchlings get enough oxygen. While covering ventilation holes can help keep the humidity at the proper level, it is essential that you leave at least a few ventilation holes open for proper air flow.

When chicks start panting it could mean the temperature in the incubator is too high or there is poor ventilation. Poor ventilation will cause a chick to breath faster in order to get more oxygen.

Dehydration

Lastly, removing fluffed out chicks within 48 hours of hatching can help prevent the issue of dehydration. Make sure you show the chicks where to find water and food when you move them to the brooder. Room temperature water supplemented with electrolytes and probiotics can help prevent dehydration.

Knowing when to remove chicks from the incubator will help you have a successful homestead hatch! Whether the hatch is right on time, a day late, or a draggy hatch… you can still raise a healthy brood right from the start. Just keep in mind that chicks can survive on the absorbed egg yolk for over 48 hours, but ideally get them into the brooder within 48 hours of them hatching. The chicks should be mostly fluffed out prior to removing them from the incubator. During draggy or difficult hatches, it is okay to remove the chicks in shifts as long as the removal is timely and doesn’t inhibit the rest of the chicks from hatching. Hopefully these tips will help you feel more confident when hatching chicks on the homestead!

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