Help Please! Day 21, 3 eggs pipped, Humidity in the Inc dropped overnight!

[MRoberts7]

Can anyone please advise? This is my first time incubating eggs. I used the dry(ish) method. (Hum between 40% and 50% during incubation). Out of 26 eggs, 10 hatched on their own, no problem. One I had to help as she was pipped with a large hole for 30 hrs but never made it past that. Membrane was completely stuck to her.

I have 9 eggs left. 3 of which were pipped last night around 8pm, one with a hole and the other 2 just cracked. I've been keeping my hatching humidity between 62% and whatever it gets to when the chicks are hatching (high 70's).

I got up this morning and the humidity had dropped to 52%! No idea how long it was that low as it was 67% when I went to bed last night. The pips have not changed except that I have one more egg pipped. I'm not super worried about the length of time as the other eggs took between 12 and 16 hours to hatch from first pip. (It's been@14 hrs for these). Chick in the egg with the large pip is still moving and cheeping (although not as vigorously as last night) However, the membrane looks to be a bit dried. If you look at the pic, the right side looks ok to me, but the left side looks to be a bit yellowed and dried. I immediately upped the humidity and its now at 72%.

I know humidity after pipping is SO important. Do you think these eggs that haven't pipped have a chance to hatch on their own? Do you think the pipped eggs will be able to hatch on their own or should I help bc they are probably to dry on account of the humidity drop? I hate to think I hurt all these babies bc i was careless with the humidity. Thanks so much for any help/advice!

 

[lazy gardener]

Read up on the assisted hatch article in the learning center. Your chicks may be stuck, especially the one with the open pip. So, you might need to help. I find it works best for me to give them PLENTY of time to work things out... perhaps 24 hours from first pip before assisting. Then, I take the egg out, and work on it with a pair of tweezers. By waiting a good long time, you are most likely to run into JUST dry membranes, and NOT bleeding membranes or unabsorbed yolk. I keep a bowl of warm water handy, and if I determine that the vascular system is completely absorbed, I chip away enough shell, and perhaps tear the membrane a bit, wet it down a bit, and put it back. If the chick is completely stuck, I then float it in the warm water in my hand. If I do this, I've committed to completely freeing the chick at this time, b/c there will be too much water entering the shell/membrane, and the chick will drown if you stop the assist b/fore the chick is completely free. Of course, it's imperative that you keep the chick's head out of the water at all times. In the warm water, it's easy to remove shell, and roll back the membrane. Never pull on any tissue attached to the chick. If the umbilicus has a lot of goop attached, leave it. I've had good results with this method, and have not yet lost one. Usually, by the next morning, I can't tell which chick I've assisted.

 

[MRoberts7]

Thank you so much for the reply.

I did follow the assisting a hatch article for the one I helped and it went well so I feel fairly confident that I can do it. I'm just not sure what eggs to help and when exactly to do it.

I just had one unzip and hatch perfectly so that gives me hope. And I have another pip in the meantime. The one with the pipped hole though, I'm just not sure about. The membrane is getting a little more brown. I will wait the 24 hours to do anything which will be around 8pm Mountain time. Maybe the extra humidity from this newest hatch will help soften it up a bit more or is it that even possible once it has started drying? If nothing has changed with the others, do you think I should try and assist them as well even if there is no hole, just a crack? I'm so afraid to open the incuabator at all since the humidity was so low overnight. I'm also afraid that if I open it to help this chick, I will be somewhat ensuring that I will need to help them all.

Another question, when you do the water assist, do you help them all the way out or do you let them finish up on their own once the air cell end is removed?

Thanks again, so much!

 

[lazy gardener]

It all depends on my assessment when I get in there. There is no one correct response in a situation like this. It depends completely on what you see once you get in there. The important thing is that once you have immersed the chick in water, there can be water pooling inside the membrane or inside the shell. If you then put the chick back in the bator, and the chick rolls the wrong way, that water can then spill out. A newly hatched chick doesn't even have the motor control to move it's head or body away from an unsafe condition, so is at very high risk of drowning, All it takes is a drop or two of water over it's nares or in it's mouth. That's why it's so very important to not have any open water in the bator.

 

[MRoberts7]

Thank you for the advice. Wanted to give an update. Early afternoon, the chick with the pipped hole hatched perfectly. Here is a pic:


By this morning, 7 of the remaining 9 had hatched. All are doing good. Its now day 22 and I still have 4 that have not pipped or moved in at least 24 hours. All of these eggs were candled and had movement right before lockdown. I did the float test but the results were very confusing. One egg sunk completely to the bottom but I saw this egg wiggling a ton on day 20. Two of the eggs floated at an angle with the air cell sticking out of the water and one floated straight up and down with the air cell sticking out. No obvious movement from any of them. I candled them and 2 had pipped the air cell but again, no noticeable movement. Not sure what to do with them other than leave them and wait? One I am very invested in as I incubated 12 Americauna eggs from my favorite hen who was recently killed by a fox and only this one was fertile. Seemed to be growing properly although the blue egg was very hard to see into well when candled. But I definitely had veining and growth and movement at least up until day 17.