High drama in the middle of the night with my hatch. Everything was zipping right along, pun intended. Four of seven babies were out and under the hot plate, it was 2:30 am, and a lull in the action, so I decided to lay down on the couch right by the dog cage that held the incubator and the hot plate with the four babies.
Not sure how long I slept, maybe an hour, and then crash! My cat had tried to jump from the rocking chair to the top of the cage and I guess hooked his claws into the top of the cage and pulled the whole thing down against the rocking chair. The Brinsea mini was flipped open and the remaining 3 eggs were out of the incubator, along with all the water. I quickly righted it and placed the eggs back in and threw in the wet sponges that were laying there and closed it. When I put one of the eggs in I noticed that it was almost all the way zipped around. Luckily the 4 chicks under the plate managed to be protected and were all ok. I went back to the couch and slept until 4:00 and when I got up the the zipper was exactly the same and seemed to be stuck. I thought, oh NO, it is probably shrink wrapped because of all the humidity being released when bator was flipped open. I got warm water and soaked towel and proceeded to pull the dry/white membrane off of it and it just exploded out. He was really stuck!!! So when I put him back in the bator to dry, I added more water and went back to sleep. Before I could go to sleep, I realized that those last two eggs were probably never going to pip if they were shrink wrapped, too. So I get up and proceed to open their shells and release them from the wrapping. The only problem with the last two was I saw blood that I hadn't seen in the other one. Anyway, they are still alive and it's been a little over an hour. I didn't feel I had a choice and it's a done deal now, so I'm hoping they live. Dang cat!!!!!
Here's one of the first chicks all fuzzy and cute. All of them are blue, so the blue marans roo must be the baby daddy.
Not sure how long I slept, maybe an hour, and then crash! My cat had tried to jump from the rocking chair to the top of the cage and I guess hooked his claws into the top of the cage and pulled the whole thing down against the rocking chair. The Brinsea mini was flipped open and the remaining 3 eggs were out of the incubator, along with all the water. I quickly righted it and placed the eggs back in and threw in the wet sponges that were laying there and closed it. When I put one of the eggs in I noticed that it was almost all the way zipped around. Luckily the 4 chicks under the plate managed to be protected and were all ok. I went back to the couch and slept until 4:00 and when I got up the the zipper was exactly the same and seemed to be stuck. I thought, oh NO, it is probably shrink wrapped because of all the humidity being released when bator was flipped open. I got warm water and soaked towel and proceeded to pull the dry/white membrane off of it and it just exploded out. He was really stuck!!! So when I put him back in the bator to dry, I added more water and went back to sleep. Before I could go to sleep, I realized that those last two eggs were probably never going to pip if they were shrink wrapped, too. So I get up and proceed to open their shells and release them from the wrapping. The only problem with the last two was I saw blood that I hadn't seen in the other one. Anyway, they are still alive and it's been a little over an hour. I didn't feel I had a choice and it's a done deal now, so I'm hoping they live. Dang cat!!!!!
Here's one of the first chicks all fuzzy and cute. All of them are blue, so the blue marans roo must be the baby daddy.
