Emergency incubation- crushed egg!!

[Enj]

Hi there all,
I bought a 9 egg incubator for a back up for my broodies, hadn't;t set it up yet and have come home to a egg a bit crushed. Ive set the incubator up just now but I don't know if its correct. I've looked at the instructions and I;ve worked out to set up the temperature but it says you can't set the humidity, you have to squirt water in to control it. How do I keep the humidity up, especially while I am at work??? It's on 44 and there is about a 1/2 cup of water in there. As it's the last few days I need to get it to about 60%?? is that correct?
Second question is how do I set it to turn? There is a light flashing saying 'Work' and underneath that another light (but not on or flashing) saying Turn. How do I set this bloody thing up??
Chick is moving in there, and could have anywhere from a day to 3 to go by the looks of it.
Any help will be ace. I had a crushed egg about two months back, but made a homemade incubator, and chick lasted a few days but got too hot and died, I was devastated. Now I've got the right tools I don't want it to happen again and to give this little guy a good chance.
Thanks!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Hi - I'm unfamiliar with the type of incubator you have so can't help with operating questions, but humidity at lockdown (3 days before hatch) should be closer to 65%...I usually run it closer to 70%. A clean cut-up (I place pieces in different areas) sponge can help maintain humidity - I rely on them to supplement the water in the channels and keep humidity up overnight.

I can't help but wonder how the loss of shell integrity may affect the moisture exchange, though. If I had to guess, I think the additional permeability might cause the inner membrane to dry out more quickly, so I'd be mindful of possible shrinkwrapping.

I hope another BYCer can assist with the incubator questions soon. Best wishes for your hatch!

 

[Trimurtisan]

I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with that incubator. One thing you can do to raise the humidity is to add a sponge to the water tray. In order for it to be humidity, the water needs to evaporate, and placing a sponge in there will drastically increase the surface area. It also thins the water out in to smaller channels making it easier to evaporate.

Best if luck to you and the little one.

 

[Trimurtisan]

How far along is the egg?

 

[CCUK]

I think with that incubator you fill the tray on the bottom. The tray is in several sections and you fill however many sections you need. The more you fill, the more the humidity and vice versa. I had a similar one and had some bad hatches with it. I was constantly making adjustments. Use a tried and tested thermometer. The digital one although I set it wouldn't keep the correct temp. this little one will hatch OK.

 

[Enj]

Thank you all, humidity alarm went off 2am this morning (argh!) so popped in some scrunched up chux wipes and water as I didn’t have a sponge. It’s hard to say with the chick, when candleing it I can still see about 3 or 4 mm of veins/egg white between the chick and air sac so I’m guessing it could grow more. But it also looks like it’s broken through to the air sac as well. So really not too sure whether I’ve got one day or one week. I’m taking the incubator with me to work so I can keep an eye on it. So still run it about 65% humidity??

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think that may be too early in the process to save it. It also looks like it is missing too many parts of the shell.
When I have a shattered egg, I've had great luck with liquid bandage and even though I've had 6o%of the egg shattered but never missing that many parts.

 

[Enj]

Yeah i just don’t know I am really worried, I have saved one before like that but I think it was a few days later. The humidity in the incubator keeps going up and down, so I just don’t know. I’ll candle it later tonight and see if I have movement, had some this last night but checked and hour ago and couldn’t t see much.

what’s liquid bandage?

 

[Enj]

Just checked and still moving, cross fingers

 

[Enj]

Checked again tonight, the ‘pyramid shadow’ is larger and almost panting in movement, there is ‘clicking’, and I swear I heard peeping...