Well my hatch is done but I ended up with some problems during lockdown. I had one chick hatch out on day 20 and a couple of pips. Well during day 21 my incubator malfunctioned and I had no choice but to open it even with the pips in there. I covered the incubator and myself to keep as much heat and humidity as possible added hot we towels and the humidity didnt do too badly while I looked at and jiggled some wires on the thermostat and fan, both had gone out. I was able to get the thermostat working again but couldnt get the fan so just decided to leave it ( I didnt want to have the lid off any longer). The temperature dropped down to 93 with the thermostat issues and lid off. I had to readjust the knob because it wouldnt get back up to temperature (didnt even come on). So I ended up working on that most of the night.
As you can guess, I did still end up with shrink wrapped chicks and had to help them out. I ended up with 5 healthy chicks. Much less than the 17 that made it to lockdown. I did open all the eggs that didnt hatch and was disturbed by what I found in some of them. As you can imagine I had several fully developed that were shrink wrapped either with yolk absorbed or in the absorption process.
I had one who didnt have the top of its skull. I have no idea what happened there, the egg it came out of was moving like crazy and it was fully developed with the yolk mostly absorbed. Does anyone have any ideas on this one?
I had two others that were moving like crazy but never pipped, when I opened them I was surprised at what I found. The cord from the yolk was wrapped behind the embryos head compressing its head next to the yolk. One had the right foot wrapped in there too. Both of these chicks had swollen skulls that were kind of flat and misshapen on one side with EXTREMELY short stubby beaks and legs. What happened to cause this?
I calibrated my hygrometer prior to the hatch and have a Brinsea Spot Check thermometer. I checked all four sides 2 times a day with the spot check using the small vent holes and the temperature was spot on between 99.5 to 100.2 during the whole incubation. I did take pictures but they didnt turn out very well and they are just disturbing. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
I did have one good thing come out of all of this. My husband suggested that if I am going to really be into this then I should save up some money and buy a real incubator (I have an LG forced air with turner). Now to decide which one to get.
As you can guess, I did still end up with shrink wrapped chicks and had to help them out. I ended up with 5 healthy chicks. Much less than the 17 that made it to lockdown. I did open all the eggs that didnt hatch and was disturbed by what I found in some of them. As you can imagine I had several fully developed that were shrink wrapped either with yolk absorbed or in the absorption process.
I had one who didnt have the top of its skull. I have no idea what happened there, the egg it came out of was moving like crazy and it was fully developed with the yolk mostly absorbed. Does anyone have any ideas on this one?
I had two others that were moving like crazy but never pipped, when I opened them I was surprised at what I found. The cord from the yolk was wrapped behind the embryos head compressing its head next to the yolk. One had the right foot wrapped in there too. Both of these chicks had swollen skulls that were kind of flat and misshapen on one side with EXTREMELY short stubby beaks and legs. What happened to cause this?
I calibrated my hygrometer prior to the hatch and have a Brinsea Spot Check thermometer. I checked all four sides 2 times a day with the spot check using the small vent holes and the temperature was spot on between 99.5 to 100.2 during the whole incubation. I did take pictures but they didnt turn out very well and they are just disturbing. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
I did have one good thing come out of all of this. My husband suggested that if I am going to really be into this then I should save up some money and buy a real incubator (I have an LG forced air with turner). Now to decide which one to get.
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