I am new to the Incubating & Hatching game. We bought the incubator from Tractor Supply a month ago & placed a bunch of eggs in for a test run on April 29th. On May 21st I saw the first pip, then on the 22nd it was like this. Nothing has happened since.
I know now I should have taken the turner out. Should I do that now, or just let it go? Should I try "messing" with the egg or just leave it? Like I said, new to hatching. We always just bought chicks until now. But we are getting so many fertile chicken & duck eggs we figured we should try this. Any advice is appreciated.
If it has been two days with no progress, my guess would be that the chick is no longer alive. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings….
Can you still see movement and hear chirping? If so, and it hasn't progressed in two days, the chick is stuck and will be worn out soon. In that case, I would get a washcloth wet under hot water and gently lift the egg out, supported in the warm washcloth and help peel back the shell until you reach the point that the chick is able to move again.
Yeah HEChicken, you are correct. I thought that was the case.
So now - - - did I do anything wrong? Something that may have been prevented?
Can anyone tell from the following pics what happened?
Again, new to hatching so I don't know I can say anything authoritatively
but it seemed to me the Air Cell wasn't big enough. Does that mean
the humidity was too high? Would that kill it?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to figure things out.
Looks like it still has yolk on it.
Are you sure the temp and humidity were correct?
I have that same incubator and threw out the thermometer that came with it because it was so horrible.
In mine I have two meat therms poked through the styrofoam, a digital temp sensor placed by the eggs, a brooder therm on top the eggs, a duel therm/hygro on the back, and finally a hygro at the front.
Thank you Dragons4u.
I presumed the temperature was correct. I know now that I need to invest in a better thermometer than the one that came with it. I was looking at one online that has a hygrometer in it as well. I hadn't thought about going to the extent you described, but that is probably a good idea.
There was a little bit of yolk left. Yet I expected the membrane to be moist. It seemed a little dry to me.
Just for giggles, I just checked the "Little Giant" thermometer against the "Hova-Bator", my digital Weber & a cheap digital (the last 2 I use for BBQ). I used the Hova-Bator #1588 we just picked up used (for free!).
From left to right...
Weber: 99.9°
Hova-Bater: 98°
Cooper (cheap yellow one): 100.0°
Little Giant: 99.5°
I expected the Little Giant to be off by more than that.
Your lucky, mine was off by four degrees.
I also noticed it wasn't very responsive on temp changes.
All my current therms and hygros I had put in our lab test chamber at work to calibrate them.
my digital sensor updates every ten seconds and the meat therm respond very quickly.
I should say I have the forced air unit cause I installed the fan in mine.
Lucky, blessed, either way I was shocked!
But I know I still need to get a good digital I can leave in there.
Looking at 1 from Incubator Warehouse that has the Hygrometer too.
Now we just have to find the $!
I bought mine at a pet store for about 15 bucks. One thing I've noticed about it, if the humidity goes up quick, it shows a low temp for a while. If it goes up slow it stays right on.
Yeah HEChicken, you are correct. I thought that was the case.
So now - - - did I do anything wrong? Something that may have been prevented?
Can anyone tell from the following pics what happened?
Again, new to hatching so I don't know I can say anything authoritatively
but it seemed to me the Air Cell wasn't big enough. Does that mean
the humidity was too high? Would that kill it?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to figure things out.
the outer membrane in your photos is yellow, but it should be white. I am going to post some graphic photos of dead chicks in different scenarios, maybe it will help?
once the membrane turns yellow, it indicates that the membrane is so dry and sticky that the chick can't spin around inside the egg. they zip by pushing with their feet, and they need to be just wet enough to slide around in there. to me the membrane looks very dried out.
the chick is in the proper position to hatch; it's head is under it's wing, the beak is facing outward toward the shell wall (it did start to zip, but it got stuck). it also seems large for the shell, is it 2 days over hatch day? that extra growth also could have contributed to it's not being able to spin around (too small air cell as you say).
possible causes: opening the incubator while there is an external pip/zip can cause some drying out. but the entire membrane down the egg shell is yellow, so that is somewhat extreme drying imho. I wonder if maybe the incubator lid was ajar without your realizing it. I have done that before... or excess ventilation in some way.
the term "lockdown" for day 18-21 exists to say that you shouldn't open the incubator because the humid environment is so important to hatching chicks. if your humidity is 55-65% and there are no drops, this dry yellow membrane should not occur.
I can't see any yolk, but there are no clear photos of the abdomen/navel area. I believe it looks fully absorbed and the navel/stomach formed over with skin(?).
here are photos of chicks who are partially (not fully) absorbed, you can still see the yolk, for comparison's sake.
1) this one was malpositioned and couldn't pip, died d21:
2) this one did pip, but died before zip on day 21 cause unknown.
it was just making the pip hole bigger without zipping:
after I start removing shell; it is starting to dry out near the pip hole (see yellowing). note the white membrane where I have removed shell; it was not dried out yet.
if I had to guess, I would say it's because it got stuck right on that yellow area. the yellow bit is actually glued onto the feathers.
Red circle= dried, stuck on membrane
green circle = white moist membrane
it was in the right position, head under wing, beak pointing to shell, feet at bottom of egg
it's navel was completely formed, yolk absorbed
