[Chickengeorgey]

Hey ya,
Looking for some advice about transporting day old chicks. The majority of my chicks are about 12 hrs old. When is the time I can move them from the incubator? my car journey is a about a half hour, ideally I'd like to move them soonish as its looking very cramped in the incubator. Since keeping heat up is so important are they at risk over the journey? I was planning on waiting another few hours and then moving them in a cardboard box with a hot water bottle and tissue paper. I know they post them in the states so it might not be such an issue.
Have one of the rcom 20's and the fluffy chicks are trampling all over the emerging ones. Is this a problem? I presume it happens like this in the wild as well so might not be an issue at all. There are 10 chicks out with another 6 eggs shaking.

Thanks in advance, George

[Casey76]

Leave them all in the incubator for 24 hurs after the last one has hatched.  Don't worry about the newly hatched ones playing football with the unhatched ones - this stimulates the eggs to hatch

You don't need a hot water bottle, but you will need a fairely shallow cardboard box, which is just a bit bigger than the mass of chicks.  Their combined body heat will be OK when they are in a protected invironment like a car.  Remember to have plenty of ventilation in the cardboard box

[Chickengeorgey]

Thanks for that Casey 76, I'll leave it off till tomorrow evening then.

Will I leave the empty shells inside the incubator? One other question, is it better to have a light over the incubator or not? Not for heat, just for some daylight, they seem to churp very excitily when the lights are turned on. Probably fussing a bit, but they look so vulnerable and I feel like I am mother hen!!!!

Georgie

[Casey76]

Yes, leave the empty shells in teh incubator.  At the moment it is a critical time, and you don't really want to disturb the humidity indise the incy right now.

My incubator only ever had ambient light, i.e. what ever daylight was available at the time, and my chicks never suffered for it

[GrannieAnnie]

These are the boxes our day olds used to come in when we got them from the hatchery, no hot water bottle, and packed close together so they keep each other warm.  Our journey from hatchery was about 40 minutes, more on a bad day!

Although this box has day old turkeys in, its still the same type, only slightly bigger!

They are usually packed in tighter, but I'd already taken some out!