Arkansas folks speak up.........

[Outrun Acres]

Looks like chick popcorn in there! How exciting! Love all the pictures you are taking!

 

[Outrun Acres]

Well hopefully I have not screwed up.

I never the misted the inside of my incubator when my chicks were hatching and 13 out of 16 hatched. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless the lid is open for awhile. I did try to open and close it really fast and didn't open it for the first 24 hours after the first chick hatched. If it is open for awhile then I would mist the lid or microwave a wet sponge for 20 seconds and put it in there before you close it. That immediately raises humidity at least 10%.

 

[cmnrallye79]

Ok, I agree and I probably messed up. I have a forced air incubator. I thought there had to be plenty of humidity since my windows have been fogged over. I know I've been anxious and I hate that for the chicks if I was not a good husbandman.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don’t beat yourself up over it. First you did not know. Two, you don’t know if you caused a problem or not. Like I said, a lot of times it’s not a big deal. Worry is interest paid on something that has not yet happened. Three, ain’t nothing you can do about it now. Don’t cry over spilled milk. Just learn for the future.

What you can do after the hatch is over is carefully open any egg that does not hatch and see what is inside. I know, some people can’t do that. But it’s a good way to analyze your hatching skills and see if there is maybe something that you want to change for next time.

If you see an egg where that membrane has shrunk tight around the chick, that is shrink-wrap. If the egg had pipped, that could have been caused by your opening the incubator. If the egg had not pipped and still is shrink-wrapped, your humidity was too low during incubation. Before anybody brings it up, yes it is possible for one egg to shrink-wrap due to low humidity while a lot of the others hatch. It’s not that common but it can happen. Each egg is different. That happens when you deal with living things.

If the egg never developed or stopped developing in the first week of incubation, that was probably due to something that happened before it went in the incubator. If it died in the last week, that was probably something to do with your incubator. Analyzing the eggs is a great way to improve your hatches if you can stand to open them and look.

 

[cmnrallye79]

Ok, I've noticed a definite trend the eggs that were on the right side of my incubator are almost a hundred percent hatch the other side almost zero.

 

[Arkansas81]

Ok, I've noticed a definite trend the eggs that were on the right side of my incubator are almost a hundred percent hatch the other side almost zero.

Hmm that's interesting. What I've done with mine is when I turned them I would switch them around. I'm only on day 3 with mine so I will see if that made any difference. I sure hope you have a good hatch from here on out. What are yours that are hatching? You will have lots of fluffy butts!!!

 

[cmnrallye79]

They are buff orpingtons.

 

[Outrun Acres]

I am a member of a hatching thread that was extremely helpful especially if you are using a styrofoam incubator with a manual temperature adjustment knob. I will post the link below. I think my hatch only went went because of all the information and advice other members gave me. The thread has continued on even though we have all finished our first hatches.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...eekend-jan5-6-whos-with-me/1750#post_10548112

 

[cmnrallye79]

Well nothing more has happened in the last 20 or so hours. So I dissected an egg. It appears that it died at about day 14 or fifteen and it is shrink wrapped, so I did all of the eggs that were left, all of them died in the same stage of life, all shrink wrapped. So hmmm. I got 18 chicks so my hatch rate was 42.8 percent.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sounds like your humidity level was low. I think you said you have a forced air. It’s strange that they were mostly on one side. Really strange.

If they died at that age it had nothing to do with you opening the incubator during hatch.

The third post on this thread has a photo of shrink-wrapped chick.

Shrink wrap photos.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=491421

This one has some pretty graphic photos that might help. They might be upsetting to some people.

Eggtopsy photos
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=363717&p=1