All chicks died....I'm sick

[Skyesrocket]

I had a horrible accident with chicks today. I incubated 7 golden phoenix eggs and one larger egg for a friend. All except for one hatched over night. The unhatched egg was still a yoke.
Anyway I lowered the temp on the still air incubator and left them in it to dry off. My friend was coming tomorrow to pick them up. Later on this afternoon I cleaned the incubater out and put paper towels down inside and put the chicks back in. They all looked good. Active and straight legs and feet. I checked the temp and everything looked good.
I went out and cleaned horse stalls, came back in and looked through the little windows and all of the chicks were laying flat on their sides. I checked the temp and it was 118 degrees!
I cooked the poor little things. I'm just sick to my stomach over it. I pulled the top off and 2 were moving a little, the larger chick and one of the little phoenixes. The phoenix died, but the larger chick survived. It took a couple of hours for it to get back up on it's feet. I gave it some water.
I don't know what happened. Maybe a power surge? I never had a problem with that incubator before.

 

[sara]

That's awful! I'm so sorry.

You shouldn't have had to lower the temp after they hatched though, I leave my chicks in until the hatch is totally complete, and keep the temp the same, take them out and put them in the brooder. I find if I leave it alone everytime I fire it up it goes to the exact same temperature.

Again I am so sorry this happened to you.

 

[Skyesrocket]

Thanks, Sara,
The hatch was complete. I lowered the temp some because I wasn't setting up a brooder for them. I was going to leave them in the incubator until my friend came tomorrow to pick them up.
I don't know what happened. I have used this incubator before with no problems.

 

[Josie]

I'm sorry.
I've unintentionally killed chicks before, and I know that sick feeling.

It could have been a surge, but really who knows. A surge protector would help next time.

 

[fowlwoman1]

I am really sorry for your loss....

 

[poulet]

:aww that is horrible poor you .

 

[Skyesrocket]

Thanks for your replies. I put the lone survivor under a silkie hen that has eggs hatching. She had 2 showgirls already hatched so the age is the same. I snuck it under her in the middle of the night last night.
I figured after what that little chick went through that it deserved to have a real mom. I checked it several times today and it seems to have no ill effects. I'm surprised because it was just barely moving when I found it and took hours to recover from the excessive heat.
I still don't know for sure how the heat climbed that high that fast. But I will be using a surge protector from now on.

 

[Chicken Cluck]

Wow. I'm sorry. Things happen........ well good thing one survived!

 

[CarriBrown]

I'm so sorry. Don't get too down on yourself. You didn't mean to do that.