The incubator is on a desk in the bedroom. My DD had gone into one of the drawers and left it open. I went into the bedroom to do a check and transfer chicks to the brooder, I brought my 19 month old DS with me and hubby came as well. I didn't notice the open drawer. I turned away to say something to hubby and as my back was turned, DS tried to climb up the desk by way of the open drawer.
I caught the desk, DH caught the baby - both of us getting across the room at the speed of light - and I did actually catch the incubator ... but the top came off and eggs, chicks and trays slid out and hit the floor.
The floor is very well padded thanks to DS's climbing skills, the desk is next to the bed and he is forever getting on and off the bed so we have folded up blankets all over the floor in that spot. The hatched chicks were all fine, but 5 of the eggs were smashed by the 3 chicken eggs that were in there and the little bowl of water. One chicken egg is also broken, the membrane is intact but the shell is missing quite a bit.
I am so heartsick over it. We quickly gathered everything up and put everything into the brooder while I got the incubator cleaned and set back up, then we carefully transferred the eggs back. By chance, there were only 2 "open" eggs at the time. One had a hole big enough for a beak to pop in and out, the other was "zipped". The zipped one was crushed but the other, you can still see the chick moving in there, but it's been a couple of hours and it hasn't progressed. I don't know if I should help it, leave it, or give it up for dead. It's been a couple of hours.
There are a bunch of eggs that had pipped to the point of teeny cracks in an intact shell. You can see where the beak will pop out, but it hasn't yet. No progress on any of those since the accident. I don't know if any of them are still alive. I hope that they are just recovering from the sudden jolt, but I fear the worst.
I caught the desk, DH caught the baby - both of us getting across the room at the speed of light - and I did actually catch the incubator ... but the top came off and eggs, chicks and trays slid out and hit the floor.
The floor is very well padded thanks to DS's climbing skills, the desk is next to the bed and he is forever getting on and off the bed so we have folded up blankets all over the floor in that spot. The hatched chicks were all fine, but 5 of the eggs were smashed by the 3 chicken eggs that were in there and the little bowl of water. One chicken egg is also broken, the membrane is intact but the shell is missing quite a bit.
I am so heartsick over it. We quickly gathered everything up and put everything into the brooder while I got the incubator cleaned and set back up, then we carefully transferred the eggs back. By chance, there were only 2 "open" eggs at the time. One had a hole big enough for a beak to pop in and out, the other was "zipped". The zipped one was crushed but the other, you can still see the chick moving in there, but it's been a couple of hours and it hasn't progressed. I don't know if I should help it, leave it, or give it up for dead. It's been a couple of hours.
There are a bunch of eggs that had pipped to the point of teeny cracks in an intact shell. You can see where the beak will pop out, but it hasn't yet. No progress on any of those since the accident. I don't know if any of them are still alive. I hope that they are just recovering from the sudden jolt, but I fear the worst.
