Chick knocking eggs around! Help!

[tcooper23]

Hey BYC,

I have a really small home made incubator and hatching some quails. Every time a chick hatches , it will go around flipping the pipped eggs on their back! Then they struggle to zip like that. I already had to bring out the few that were hatched yesterday into the brooder and position the pipped eggs correctly again But every time a new one, a new problem.
What should I do??? I'm also scared of shrink wrapping them if I keep opening it up!

 

[Lozuufy]

In my experience the eggs that are in process of hatching are fine getting rolled around a bit, it can actually help encourage them to hatch and is pretty unavoidable especially with little spazzy quail.
Just keep an eye on the humidity if you keep opening it up, maybe add a wet sponge if it seems too dry.

 

[tcooper23]

In my experience the eggs that are in process of hatching are fine getting rolled around a bit, it can actually help encourage them to hatch and is pretty unavoidable especially with little spazzy quail.
Just keep an eye on the humidity if you keep opening it up, maybe add a wet sponge if it seems too dry.

Thanks! Spazzy indeed. When it got really crazy, I ended up separating the hatching egg slightly with a piece of cardboard. And of course as you mention, humidity needed to come back up quickly so I put a piece of wet cloth in there.

Only one let to hatch now!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I open mine frequently during hatch to remove chicks, egg shells, and roll pippers back up. I do not like the eggs getting knocked around. I use wet sponges in my incubator so it's easy to pull one out, rewet, stick it back in and keep humidity boosted to 70%+. Shrink wrapping doesn't happen in a matter of seconds. Membrane around the pip hole can became dry and stick to the chick hindering it's movement, but true shrinkwrapping is like leather drying. In 3 years I have NEVER lost a pipper/zipper from opening the bator, but I have lost one when I wasn't here to monitor that had been flipped where the pip was against the mat.