I am an idiot! What do I do now?

[HennyJenny]

I opened the incubator last night to put some water in. I decided to candle the eggs (so the room was dark and I didn't have my glasses on because well - the eggs were up close or at least at arms length

. I laid the lid up against the couch - unbeknownst to me - the viewing windows fell out. I put the lid back on and went to bed. I woke up this morning and saw the temp was only 87 degrees (about 4 hours later) - and I thought "d**mit! what's wrong and turned the thermostat up (still no glasses). I got home from work at 6:30 tonight - went to check the incubator temp - and duhhhh still at 87 degrees. Put my glasses on to properly inspect the situation and I SEE the viewing windows on the floor. So - I've put the viewing windows back in and it should go back to a normal temp - but do you think it even matters after about 16 hours at 87 degrees? The next hatching eggs I buy - I'm just going to have them shipped directly to someone that knows what they are doing - then I will still have wasted the money but someone will get a bird out of the deal! ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

They will be fine. Some people have hatches after days of that temp . They may just be a little late. Good Luck!

 

[HennyJenny]

Thank you for that! I am trying to ignore these eggs and not act like a freak this time - but apparently I've replaced freak with idiot. I'm either cooking these eggs (which I wasn't directly responsible for) or freezing them and it's a pretty expensive habit to keep ruining eggs.

 

[Cairina moschata]

Don't have much to lose at this point so if I were in your shoes I'd just go for it and consider it a bonus if you get some chicks. My first hatch this year hatched on day 25-26, rechecked my thermometer and it was off by 5-8 degrees so I was incubating at about 90 degrees for 18 days and as expected I only got 3 out of 14 to hatch but hey its not 0% and look how far that temp was off.
Best wishes, I hope you are pleasantly surprised in a few weeks.