Help! Baby chicks shrink wrapped

[Reneescoop]

Ok, so this is my 2nd hatched. All was good up until day 20, when we had our first out of 44 eggs pip. I was checking in on the eggs regularly at this point excited for our hatchlings.
Well, randomly the temp spiked up to 104 ( couldnt be no longer then 30 minutes as i was checking constantly for action) after the spike, i opened the bator to let some heat out, not to long tho, just long enough. But the temp wouldnt go back down! It stayed at about 102-103.5 after that for a good hour.
I thought for sure they were all dead! But thats not the case.
Its late day 21 now and weve got 4 hatched, and one pip.
However, i candled earlier today before the firdt hatched to see if we still had a chance and i noticed that almost ALL our Americana eggs were shrink wrapped. Now the humidity has been reading fine this entire incubation.
Did the temp spike cause this?!

Pleaee dont lecture me on this next part, bc they are going to die regardless if i assist or not.
But i did just assist one of the blue eggs in hopes id save it. Its hardly hanging on.
My question is, if i make an artificial pip just on the outter shell, will this help get humidity inside the egg and release the shrink wrap? Has anyone tried this?!

This is killing me seeing them full term and dieing. And i dont want to keep trying to save them if its not helping.

 

[Pyxis]

Why do you think the eggs are shrinkwrapped? It doesn't sound like they have pipped yet, and without them having pipped, you can't really see if they are shrinkwrapped or not. If after they pip, the humidity in the incubator falls, they can dry out and have the membrane stick to them and they get stuck, or if the humidity was too low for the entire incubation period, that can also cause shrinkwrapping, but I'm not sure how you would be able to tell they are shrinkwrapped from candling. You could maybe see that the air cell is larger than it is supposed to be, but this does not necessarily mean they are shrinkwrapped.

Was the egg you assisted already internally pipped? Were all the veins absorbed and was all the yolk absorbed?

 

[JaeG]

The air cell draws down a lot on one side as they get ready to pip internally. You might see the membrane moving as the chick begins pushing on it. If they have pipped internally you'll see a shadow beak. What's your humidity?

 

[Lil Peeps]

Okay, if the eggs truly did get shrink wrapped it would have happened when you opened the incubator to let the heat out. If the eggs were pipped, then they could have indeed been shrink wrapped by the sudden loss of humidity. A key rule for hatching is hands off during the last three days- "lock down" and hatching. Usually no opening the incubator at all after day 18; keeping it closed tight while making sure it has good circulation and humidity through the air vent systems. I understand that that information is late in this case, but I hope it could help you in the future. My advice at this point would be get your temp and humidity set 98 or 99 for the temp should be just fine, you can run a little low during hatching and around 70% humidity in most cases, it depends on your hatching technique and the climate that you live in, but just keep in mind that you really want it humid in their to help the babies hatch. Adding warm water with a mister or a sponge can really help. Then close the incubator and just let it be for a little while and see if the babies can get out on their own. Assisting a chick to hatch can be very dangerous so it should only be done when the chick really has no chance of hatching on it's own, since trying to assist to early could mean removing a membrane full of alive blood vessels the chick hasn't absorbed yet. I hope this helps and I hope everything goes well! Prayers for lots of little baby chicks. Keep us updated!

 

[Lil Peeps]

Also, for your question about the artificial pip releasing the shrink wrap, making an artificial pip in the egg would really only be beneficial to a chick in the case that it has pipped internally, which means it has broken it's air cell and is breathing that air, and it is mis- positioned or too weak to break through the egg shell to get more oxygen. For a chick that hasn't internally pipped making an artificial external pip won't really do it any good, because the only place you can safely break the shell is the air cell, which, in this case, the chick wouldn't have reached yet. So, in this case, creating a pip would end up exposing the membrane to the outside air and making it dry, which could shrink wrap a chick. I think the best thing you could try first is lots of humidity and a closed incubator. Hopefully this helps and I really hope all of those babies hatch. Best of luck to you!

 

[Maddison]

Unless the eggs have externally pipped they shouldn't be shrinkwrapped in my experience, the only eggs I forced myself to assist that were infact shrinkwrapped, had already pipped but not made any progress is 24hrs and the one I left to "let nature take its course" WAS shrinkwrapped and died because I didn't help it in time! they shrinkwrapped because I opened the incubator. if your temp spikes then cool down the room the bator is in, in my experience the temp will usually never go down when you open the bator to cool it, it will only rise it. adding a bit of cold water can bring it down too, but not so much that it would spike the humidity beyond reasonable. truthfully we are NOT as good a mother as hens, if a situation ever arises that a chick can't hatch itself, IMO its perfectly okay to assist so long as you know what your doing. also, wait a maximum of 3 days to take out ANY chicks once fluffed, if you open the bator often you will very likely shrinkwrapped pipped ones, so wait 3 days to take out chicks. P.s I've had chicks reach temps of 40*C and still hatched, so don't stress!

 

[ChickNanny13]

All great advice & information! Keep us updated, if it's one thing chickens teach us is PATIENCE! Hoping the rest of your hatch go well ...