Help! Day 22 and wobbling reduced...

[Mewmew]

I have one remaining egg- its in a brinsea eco incubator and from day 19 it was wobbling, the most being yesterday at day 21. But no pipping yet. Its one of three that were put together in the bator for lockdown. The first died at day 23, poor baby had its head stuck at the pointy end and never pipped. The second just seemed to stop developing and i removed that one today- it was curled up at the bottom of the egg and looked like the unbilical cord was dettached and the yolk was floating above it. Now this is the last one left. No pipping yet and i tried candling today- its still alive but i cant see where the beak is so i don't know if its in the right position or not. Humidity is good i think- (this incubater model has two wells for water- with both being full at lockdown). Is there anythung i can do to help?? Im worried it wont make it and thats its warn out from all the wobbling yesterday... ideas anyone?

 

[slordaz]

Applied cocnut oil. Membrane looks weirdly transparent. Can see a bit of yolk at the top. Still moving but smler movements. Think shes asleep so going to leave her be for a few hours, checking the membrane every hour or so... fingers crossed she makes it. We are into day 24 now...

I will be here with you I know just how stressful this can be. if you can see yolk where you opened it yep she's upside down in the egg, so look for where her beak should be on the other end of the egg

 

[flgardengirl]

How is it doing now? Babies sleep. It may just be sleeping. As long as your temp & humidity is correct you need to just leave the incubator closed during the hatch. Its hard, I know but if you keep opening it and messing with them, it sucks all the humidity out at once and they can die. I know its tempting and nerve wracking -but not opening it, gives it the best chance.

 

[slordaz]

I'm worried its weaker. No chirping and i dont know how long ago it pipped the membrane. Still wobbling. Should i step in?

if your sure it internally pipped and it's been close to 24 hours carefully make a small whole in the air cell end so they can get more air in there, then place back in incubator and see if that helps for a bit, if you don't hear cheeping soon and you have read the assisted hatching then help. Tagging people as I can't find the article on assisting. I found it lol
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching.64660/

@Ridgerunner

 

[Mvan42]

If you do a saftey hole be careful they can become shrink wrapped

 

[slordaz]

I can see the membrane moving up and down- maybe her head is at the pointy end?

She could be mal positioned
but from sounds of things she''s working on getting her self outta there. the small whole to allow air as you suspect she had internally pipped was to get air in there before air cell ran out. you want to keep an eye and only start assisting ever so slowly, it took me 8 hours to assist one that was mal positioned just so ya know going by the 2 hour rule, next time you have to check, See if you can find the beak too. and if you enlarge hole have some Vaseline or coconut oil to apply to the membrane so it doesn't dry out

 

[Mvan42]

Once you check again if possible get pictures and post that will help

 

[Mewmew]

Applied cocnut oil. Membrane looks weirdly transparent. Can see a bit of yolk at the top. Still moving but smler movements. Think shes asleep so going to leave her be for a few hours, checking the membrane every hour or so... fingers crossed she makes it. We are into day 24 now...

 

[slordaz]

Thats okay, i really appreciate your help through it all. Im in the uk and i stayed up watching her until 4am,when i had to take a friend into work, and when i got back she had sadly passed away. Thank you for all your help though! I have some more eggs starting incubation tonight- (i purchased these a few days ago) so i'm really hoping that as the conditions are right from the very beginning, that the hatch rate will be high and problem free. But if these guys dont make it, I'll take that as a sign I'm doing something wrong and i wont try anymore. After watching the poor chickie wiggle for days only to perish, i dont think i could do it again because i feel at fault. i know i did what i could, but i didn't do enough right. (Like the wrong incubator to begin with/not assisting enough/soon enough/etc). Maybe i candled too much and thats why its head was down to get away from the light?

But hopefully in 21 days i can add some sucessful hatch pictures to this thread. I have so much respect to mummy hens- they make it look effortless! If these next ones hatch, they will be hatching the eggs they lay- nature knows best!

Thanks again for the help and advise though- i truly do appreciate it. xx

There is a lot of good information here on the link I posted, if Eggs are being shipped they need to settle for 24 hours before putting in the incubator. I found what worked best for me was incubating them laying down but I have a different one, it took me some bad hatches to get the hang of it also the instructions on incubator is assuming everyone is at sea level which make you have to learn the hard way if your not at see level. Also if you read that link I posted earlier on mal positioned there are links to read also on if it is an incubator issue, it could be where your getting them from has an older flock , nutritional deficiency any number of things can cause it, Brinsea here are usually pretty good

There are great monthly hatch along were you can post and get advice too, @Ridgerunner @PD-Riverman really helped me a lot when I wanted to give up and now I'm getting good hatchrates, but read all you can about hatching in an incubator in articles here too

 

[Mvan42]

Hows it doing? Has it piped yet?