Dangerous Incubator Temp

[RachelM]

Hi all,

On Sunday morning I noticed that suddenly my incubator temps had soared to 110F! The incubators and turner are plugged into a power bar that by accident was momentarily flicked off and back on again, and this is the only thing I can think off that could have caused the sudden burst in temp. I think they potentially sat all night at this temp! As soon as I noticed I took them lid off and poured some cool water to bring them down, but I'm afraid it did damage! Most of them are dark shells and I only have a flashlight that I've been using to candle, but the few eggs I can see through are now showing a large dark spot... Is it worth to hold on and give them a chance? The picture is a little blurry, but the air cell is still there and the lower half of the egg is all dark

 

[RedneckRedhead]

That eggs looks like it might have bacteria growing in it. I would wait for someone with more experience to give their input. I would not give up on the eggs yet. I have heard of temps going way up, or way down, and still hatching.

 

[RachelM]

Thanks. I got a higher-powered flashlight and it works better on those dark eggs, most of which seem to have a dark spot, some of them it seems to jiggle a little with the egg.

 

[Hannnaahh]

Maybe try the float test?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Well, it depends how long they were at that temp. I doubt that dousing them in cold water is a good thing. (Picture laying in the sun until you are all hot and sweaty and then jumping into cold water. Quite a shock to the system.) All you can do is give it a day and recandle. You can't tell anything from the pic at this point. Water candling really should be used as a last resort after the eggs are over due and not before. There are arguments as to the probability that it weakens the eggs immunity by removing the "bloom". Jury is stil out on it.

I hope that you find that it wasn't that high long enough to compromise the hatch. Recandle, check for movement or dissapearing of the veins. Let us know how it goes.

 

[RachelM]

Well, convinced that they were all dead, I opened one up today to find it did in fact have a chicken in it. AT day 15, it seems only to be at a day 9-10 development. It seems that, if the rest are indeed alive, they might hatch. Has any one else had chicks that hatch so far behind? is 5 days too much of a set back?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Well, convinced that they were all dead, I opened one up today to find it did in fact have a chicken in it. AT day 15, it seems only to be at a day 9-10 development. It seems that, if the rest are indeed alive, they might hatch. Has any one else had chicks that hatch so far behind? is 5 days too much of a set back?

Was your temp spike around day 9/10? A five day delayed chick has little probability of being healthy or normal. The fact that it would be strong enough to even hatch would amaze me. My day 24 hatcher has issues w/balance and exertion causes mouth breathing, (though it wasn't apparent until he was a good 4 months old to what extent.) He will always be a special needs just because of his balance problems. So I never hold out much hope after day 22/23. The egg that you eggtopsied could have been an early quitter because of the temp spike. Theoretically there could be others progressing at normal rates if you are only on day 15.

 

[RachelM]

I think it was indeed. I went through each egg and tried to figure out by the size of the air cell if they had developed, and most seemed to have not. So all the ones I thought had died I opened up since I was removing them from the incubator anyways, and you are correct, the ones that developed all seemed to have died and failed to grow beyond the day of the temp spike. I have about 1.5 dozen who I still have some hope for, since the air cell is larger than those who "quit", so I guess I'll find out next Friday if I've got any survivors. Thanks for all your help!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I think it was indeed. I went through each egg and tried to figure out by the size of the air cell if they had developed, and most seemed to have not. So all the ones I thought had died I opened up since I was removing them from the incubator anyways, and you are correct, the ones that developed all seemed to have died and failed to grow beyond the day of the temp spike. I have about 1.5 dozen who I still have some hope for, since the air cell is larger than those who "quit", so I guess I'll find out next Friday if I've got any survivors. Thanks for all your help!

Good luck. I hope that there are still some that are progressing for you and you get some chicks out of it.