Please help newbie hatcher!!

[CSisley]

Oh no! Well that's just the way it goes sometimes, I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. I just recently killed a developing egg because I set it later than the rest of a batch of eggs and it had to go through the high humidity of lockdown before it was due to hatch. I thought I could maybe get away with it but it ended up dying in the last few days of incubation and when I opened it up there was liquid in the air cell which is a sign of the humidity being too high for too long.The remaining egg could still make it, you just never know. I don't know of anything further you could do but just wait and see what happens. If the chick hasn't lost enough water weight it may have a difficult time hatching so I would consider assisting it if it looks like it's having trouble. Just keep in mind that assisting can do more damage than good if you don't give the chick time to absorb the yolk sack and the blood in the allantois.

 

[crzyckldy]

Ok thanks! It's due to hatch on Friday... The air sac still looks a little too small :-(.. So hatch day I'll probably be posting panicking!!

 

[crzyckldy]

Oh no! Well that's just the way it goes sometimes, I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. I just recently killed a developing egg because I set it later than the rest of a batch of eggs and it had to go through the high humidity of lockdown before it was due to hatch. I thought I could maybe get away with it but it ended up dying in the last few days of incubation and when I opened it up there was liquid in the air cell which is a sign of the humidity being too high for too long.The remaining egg could still make it, you just never know. I don't know of anything further you could do but just wait and see what happens. If the chick hasn't lost enough water weight it may have a difficult time hatching so I would consider assisting it if it looks like it's having trouble. Just keep in mind that assisting can do more damage than good if you don't give the chick time to absorb the yolk sack and the blood in the allantois.

Today was lockdown. I candled again and the chick is still alive but there is fluid in the air cell!! Now what do I do? Should I still up the humidity as normal for lockdown? How will I know if it needs help? I'm afraid of it pipping internally and drowning??

 

[CSisley]

If it were me, and I knew for certain there was fluid in the air cell, I would make a small hole in the air cell and drain it. You don't want the chick to pip internally and end up drowning as a result. Then, I would wait and see what happens. You want to keep your humidity at 65% during lockdown no matter what.

If it doesn't come out hatch day or the day after I would seriously consider assisting it and follow the instructions in this article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

 

[crzyckldy]

If it were me, and I knew for certain there was fluid in the air cell, I would make a small hole in the air cell and drain it. You don't want the chick to pip internally and end up drowning as a result. Then, I would wait and see what happens. You want to keep your humidity at 65% during lockdown no matter what.

If it doesn't come out hatch day or the day after I would seriously consider assisting it and follow the instructions in this article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

Sorry to ask so many questions and thank you so much for all of your help!!!As long as there is no external pips, I'm not going to mess up anything opening and closing the incubator to recheck the air cells and make the holes if I need too?

 

[CSisley]

No apologies necessary! If there are no external pips, you are not going to mess anything up opening the incubator IMO. The humidity will take awhile to reestablish once you open the incubator up but you have to weigh the risks. At this point I believe the chick drowning is a greater risk than it getting shrink wrapped by a lack of humidity during lockdown. If you are concerned about humidity being lost, take the incubator into your bathroom, turn the shower on full heat and wait till it gets good and steamy in the room, then open the incubator and do what you need to do. Just make sure the pip you make is small, just enough to let water out but not so big it will dry the membrane out before the chick has a chance to hatch. Make absolutely sure you make the hole in the air cell and not anywhere else. I’ve found using the skinny blade on a small pair of scissors pretty handy for this. I sort of scratch at a tiny spot with the pointy blade just enough to make a small hole. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly and any tool you use before handling the egg.

 

[spotsplus]

Your losing humidity each time you open the incubator so if your eggs are on hatch day I'd keep the incubator closed and keep the humidity at 65%.

 

[crzyckldy]

No apologies necessary! If there are no external pips, you are not going to mess anything up opening the incubator IMO. The humidity will take awhile to reestablish once you open the incubator up but you have to weigh the risks. At this point I believe the chick drowning is a greater risk than it getting shrink wrapped by a lack of humidity during lockdown. If you are concerned about humidity being lost, take the incubator into your bathroom, turn the shower on full heat and wait till it gets good and steamy in the room, then open the incubator and do what you need to do. Just make sure the pip you make is small, just enough to let water out but not so big it will dry the membrane out before the chick has a chance to hatch. Make absolutely sure you make the hole in the air cell and not anywhere else. I’ve found using the skinny blade on a small pair of scissors pretty handy for this. I sort of scratch at a tiny spot with the pointy blade just enough to make a small hole. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly and any tool you use before handling the egg.

I quickly checked and it appears the fluid in the air cell has dried up so I misted some warm water on it & put it back. Just keeping my fingers crossed now!

 

[CSisley]

Did the egg hatch??

 

[crzyckldy]

Did the egg hatch??

No :-(. It had internally pipped and after a day of no progress, I made an external pip For it. It was alive and chirping so I put it back to see if it would hatch the rest on its on. This was late at night. The next morning nothing had changed so I checked and it was dead :-(.