incubator lost power

[cmveason]

I am hatching chickens through a company for my kindergarteners. Luckily, we aren't in school due to covid. However, everything was going great until day 17. Somehow the plug was unplugged and the incubator was without power for - in my estimation- somewhere around 20-21 hours from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. I plugged it back in and it read that there were 4 days to go instead of 3. I candled and saw no movement. When I checked a couple of hours later, there was movement in 4/5 eggs. On Tuesday, I heard chirping late at night and then got a pip in one egg around 12:30am Wednesday morning. What are the chances any more will pip, and if they do by some miracle hatch, what are the chances they'll survive. Also, should I take the egg out that I didn't see movement in after the outage? I am so stressed

 

[JaeG]

Leave them in until you are absolutely sure there's no hope. If they still look full and dark leave them in. A dead embryo will look very black and lumpy and a watery gap will develop between it and the bottom of the air cell as it sinks towards the narrow end of the egg.

Eggs can handle low temperatures much better than they can high ones, and at the age your embryos were when this happened they would be generating a bit of heat themselves.

 

[cmveason]

Thank you! I just saw pips in two more eggs, so now I have 3/5. One seems that it may have pipped on the wrong side though...

 

[Amylynn514]

Thank you! I just saw pips in two more eggs, so now I have 3/5. One seems that it may have pipped on the wrong side though...

Hi- I had a similar situation with the first chick to hatch from my current set of eggs. It pipped in the middle of the egg, not near the air sac. It seemed like it rested for a very long time, since it didn't get to breathe the air from its air sac first. I was concerned it might have been malpositioned and unable to hatch, but it managed. It finished zipping about 27 hours after it pipped; if it hadn't I would have tried helping it.

 

[cmveason]

Thank you! None of the chicks have unzipped at all, but I know that could take another day or so aft that 1st pip.

 

[cmveason]

Update: one of the chicks hatched and I now have another pip. So, I am hoping 4/5 eggs hatch. I think one of them died in the egg during the outage.

 

[JaeG]

That is good news - it's amazing how hardy those little chicks can be.

 

[Amylynn514]

Update: one of the chicks hatched and I now have another pip. So, I am hoping 4/5 eggs hatch. I think one of them died in the egg during the outage.

Keep us updated!

 

[cmveason]

So, I have 3 healthy chicks. However, the one that I think pipped at the wrong end hasn't started to zip yet. I noticed the pip at 5:30 this morning. I know it can take 24 hours. I just worry more because it doesn't seem to be "rocking" the egg like the others would, so I wonder if it is too weak or not getting enough oxygen. Every once and a while, I think I hear a peep. I can see it's beak moving, but it is like heavy breathing almost. I'm not comfortable with helping and never have. I am going to give it more time for now. My other chicks are just walking around, chirping, and sleeping. Happy as can be!

 

[JaeG]

If there's an external pip then it will be getting enough oxygen and as long as it can breathe it will be fine. If it has pipped in the wrong place then it will have skipped the internal pip stage so may take even longer to unzip, up to 4 hours.

It may be still absorbing the remains of the yolk and blood from the veins in the membrane which might explain its beak movements - they will yawn and chew (I liken it to smacking their lips) as they do this. Just keep an eye on the colour of the membrane. White is fine, yellow is ok, but if it is starting to turn brown around the pip hole then you'll need to apply some coconut oil or similar.

I do always help mine if I think there is a problem because we are artificially incubating eggs and so we aren't as tuned in as a mother hen would be to the needs of the eggs. We can get things like humidity wrong at crucial times which could make it harder (perhaps even impossible) for a chick to hatch by itself.

This is an excellent article on assisted hatching:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

But I definitely think at this stage your chick just needs time.