Hatch Day Help - Chickens!

[SpicyDill]

I have a smaller HHD incubator and because of its location, I've kept it nestled in the styrofoam clamshell in an effort to keep conditions stable. It's done well holding temperature and humidity up to this point, for the most part (fine-tuning humidity was a hassle but I got it worked out).

I currently have 3 chicks hatched and 2 pipped. One pip looks bad, unfortunately. There are no signs of hatching yet from the other 12 eggs, although they were all alive and very active on my lockdown day candling. My humidity has jumped hugely (sitting at 83% right now) and the temperature has dropped, but the Govee inside is getting pretty gunked up from wet chicks and I'm not sure how accurately it's reading now.

Should I pull the incubator out of the clamshell to improve ventilation? Should I leave it be?

I'm not a first-time hatcher but usually it's my own eggs. These are shipped eggs that I invested quite a bit into, and I have a lot riding on them, so I'm super nervous!

Edit: Humidity is reading 85% now and temperature has dropped by a degree.

 

[sourland]

I would remove the incubator from the clamshell and would also quickly remove the hatched chicks. Good luck. Keep an eye on humidity and replace into the clamshell if necessary.

 

[SpicyDill]

Thank you. I don't want to jeopardize the chicks in progress so the 4 hatched chicks are staying in for now; technically we don't even hit Day 21 for another 5 hours, so there's still time for the rest of the eggs. We're right at the beginning of the hatch. I've gone ahead and removed the incubator from the clamshell. Humidity is in a safer range now but the temp has dropped again after pulling from the clamshell, so I'll make the necessary adjustments. The 4 chicks that have already hatched are alternating between napping and running around in there like crazy, so they seem alright!

 

[sourland]

Update?

 

[SpicyDill]

I ended up with 8 successfully hatched babies, which I am excited about, but the other 9 eggs that were alive and well at lockdown didn't make it. Of those 9 that died, 2 had deformities and 1 had stunted growth, 1 had pipped internally in a bad spot and drowned, leaving 5 that died fully formed.

I plan to upgrade to a better incubator. I think the intense humidity spikes and wild temperature fluctuations (I still don't understand why) that occurred only after hatch began were likely the issue.

 

[sourland]

Well done.

 

[SpicyDill]

I have a new Brinsea Ovation 56 EX on the way -- a huge upgrade from a $50 HHD. My next hatch will spend a couple of days in the HHD before I can switch them to the Brinsea, but I'm very hopeful that a better bator makes all the difference!

 

[sassychickens76]

Do you have more chicks? I have a $50 24 egg incubator off of ebay. Out of 7 eggs 5 were fertile and out of the fertile eggs 3 hatched. So out of good eggs I had a 60% hatch rate!