Day 20 incubation in serious need of help please

[Tarneebear1]

I think we have had trouble with this first hatch. I am in Australia and have had no water in the incubator and the humidity has been sitting around 45/50%( apparently going by the bator)
Day 18 and my friend candled and the air cells were so small. They went into lockdown but she decided to water float incase it was all over. The eggs immediately sunk due to little to no air cell but there is movement so they are alive.
What can I do to save these chicks please.
I need some experienced people who can help these guys out.
She candled today also and there was a space that u could see thru which I would have thought was an air cell but as previously mentioned they sunk.
Thank In advance I am freaking out for these chicks

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

At day 18 you really don't have time now to get those air cells bigger That's high humidity you have had with no water in the incubator. Did you have all the vents/plugs fully open to get as much air as possible into the incubator? As there is not a lot you can do at this late stage in incubation you will just have to keep your fingers crossed for you chicks I'm afraid

Good luck with your eggs

 

[Tarneebear1]

Thanks for the reply.

I don't think I have anything I have to remove? It's summer here in Australia and humidity has been high. Can I have the lid ajar? My temp will hold but the humidity will drop alittle. Am I better leaving it as is or lowering humidity untill they pip and then increase humidity to assist the hatch???
Thank you

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

You need higher humidity for them to hatch safely. What's it at now? Do you have a hygrometer? You could higher it when they pip yes. With small air cells though they may not safely pip into the air cell. What sort of size were they at when you last candled?

 

[Tarneebear1]

She just said too small. I think she thought they were dead and decided to do water float test and they sunk and she said yep dead but then they moved and moved a couple of times when we decided to put them back in the bator.
It's at 45% atm. I didn't want to increase as I thought that would make it internally worse for the chicks as I don't want them to lose any more air.
Are u familiar with the style I gave? Is there vents or anything I should gave opened?
Thank you so much for all your help

 

[Tarneebear1]

No I don't have a hygrometer

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I've not had this model myself but have seen folks on here with them. Are you just going on what the incubator is telling you for the humidity?

Right now if I were you I would leave them be and if you get an external pip put the humidity up then. As humidity needs to be an average over the entire incubation period in order for the eggs to lose enough moisture there really isn't anything else you can do right now due to lack of time.

I will just have a quick look for a thread on your incubator.

 

[Tarneebear1]

Yes I am going purely by what the bator is saying. I have not added water to it at all during the incubation period as it was staying around 45-50% and judging by the dilemma I am now faced with I think it would be about right but how do u lower humidity when u haven't even added water?

I can't see anywhere where I was suppose to open. This model has a fan and if you look on the lid there is 2 places with holes about the size of a thumb nail.

 

[stakerz]

i had eggs that were abandoned by the chicken after day 17 so I put them in the incubator, it's day 23 now, this chick pipped its way through and after 24 hours was still in the same position, so I carefully broke away some shell and this is what I'm left with, I don't have a humidity thermometer(I should have ordered one) and wasn't sure I'd need it, as its my first time. Please don't be harsh, I want this chick to survive so badly and I hope I have done the right thing.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I can't find anything on any other vents etc for your bator.
With no water in there it's hard to lower it because you have no surface area of water to lower which is the usual course for getting it down. For your future incubating I would get a thermometer and hygrometer and go by them. Not what the incubator is telling you. You could also add some dry uncooked rice to the bottom of the bator to absorb some of the humidity. This may work to get your air cells bigger next time.