UPDATED - with pics! Do I help??? Original Post: Nooo!! Eggs are hatching TODAY... and incubator

UPDATE:

One of our broken eggs from the incubator fall yesterday sucessfully made it (YAY!) and so far the other cracked ones are still alive!
One is trying and is having a hard time getting out of the remaining shell. It's cracked all over, so it can't just push the shell away. I don't know if I need to worry about it being covered in all the goop or if I should try to remove some of the pieces of shell?
Another one you can see the beak is out of the membrane (and there is blood so not a good sign I'm sure) and is peeping. The shell on that one broke almost completley away on one side and is still intact and I can still see through it.
I'm keeping the humidity up around 75%-80% and I'll try attaching pictures here.

Does anyone know if there is something else I should do?? How will I know if these guys need help??







Yesterday:

Just heard a loud thump and ran down to find one of our cats somehow got into the laundry room and knocked our incubator off the table it was sitting on! My husband snatched it up right away but our eggs are in various states from some small cracks to a couple with several pieces of shell missing.

It's the end of Day 21, we had two successfully hatched, two pipped, and 5 others.

The incubator itself didn't open much (just a crack) and the humidity stayed high (75%). Temp dropped to about 95 before I could get it going back up. I wrapped the worst of the cracked ones loosely in damp paper towel but I don't know if that was the right thing to do?!?!

As far as I can tell, the membranes did NOT break.
One of them was peeping as I tried to gently wrap it in the towel.

WISH ME LUCK THAT MAYBE WE CAN SAVE THESE LITTLE GUYS!

Bump up for update and pics. Anyone know if I should help these guys?? Just a moment ago the one that was trying to get out finally did, but has a lot of goop and bits of shell sticking to it. I'm thinking it is best to let it try to dry off?

This is only my second hatch so this is all so far out of my experience level!

littletadpole said:

Bump up for update and pics. Anyone know if I should help these guys?? Just a moment ago the one that was trying to get out finally did, but has a lot of goop and bits of shell sticking to it. I'm thinking it is best to let it try to dry off?

This is only my second hatch so this is all so far out of my experience level!

Click to expand...

You can remove the pieces of broken shell and moisten the membrane. You can use bacitracin/neosporin or vaseline (nothing with pain reliever in it,) to LIGHTLY coat the membrane to keep it moist and see where the veining is. If there is no veining, you can do do an assist, chipping away/removing the shell and pulling back the membranes to free the chicks. As soon as you can see into the shell at belly level, check for unabsorbed yolk sac. If there is still yolk, leave the chick in the shell and replace him and give him time to absorb that. IF at ANY time you see significant bleeding in the membrane stop. Put it back cause it needs more time.

You can pick the shell off the hatcher before it dries to it's feathers.