I think my brinsea may be too good.....

[kennedyscochins]

I have a brinsea cabinet incubator and a brinsea octagon 20 EX that I am using for hatching. My eggs are on day 21 today. Temperatures and humidity have been perfect the entire time (incubation and hatching). So, I have a confession. Since I am used to my eggs hatching day 19 in other bators, I was getting nervous. I have had 2 eggs hatch already and pips in three more. But, one pipped yesterday and died, so I was afraid the others would die. They have been pipped since early this morning and have made no progress. So, since this incubator will maintain humidity even with me opening the lid quickly, I grabbed one of the eggs that had pipped and pulled off a little piece of shell, to find the chick still alive and a lot of blood. I quickly put it back in the hatcher. Humidity stabilized in less than a minute. My question is this: how many days do I wait? I hate for them to die trying to hatch. How many hours from pip is too many?

 

[debilorrah]

From pip to hatch should be 24 hours. People are gonna come down on me for this, but after 24 hours, I help them out. I have had better results doing that than waiting. 100% of the time when I have waited they were dead. That is just me.....

If you DO decide to help, make sure you moisten the membrane and take VERY TINY pieces of the shell off. At any sign of blood STOP and return it to the bator.

 

[Mahonri]

Patience.

I've had some take 24 hours from pip to zip.

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
Ditto.

 

[kennedyscochins]

So, if they haven't hatched by morning, I should help them? That will be 24 hours at least. I just feel like if i don't help, they're gonna die anyway.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
First, I am going to recommend you calm down. Been there done that and killed a chick. Honestly you can see inside the bator and know if the membrane is still wet or not. If I can tell it is dry (papery look to it), then I help it - SLOWLY, methodically, TINY bits at a time. The wet membrane looks thicker than the dry membrane. It is a judgement call from your HEAD, not your heart. So seperate the two, reexamine the bator and make a decision. And be comfortable with ANY outcome if you decide to help.

 

[kennedyscochins]

Quote:
First, I am going to recommend you calm down. Been there done that and killed a chick. Honestly you can see inside the bator and know if the membrane is still wet or not. If I can tell it is dry (papery look to it), then I help it - SLOWLY, methodically, TINY bits at a time. The wet membrane looks thicker than the dry membrane. It is a judgement call from your HEAD, not your heart. So seperate the two, reexamine the bator and make a decision. And be comfortable with ANY outcome if you decide to help.

I am just going to wait another day or two. They will probably do better on their own. I am just so used to them hatching early in my other bators that I think something's wrong. The brinsea maintains everything so well that they are actually waiting until they're due to hatch!

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
First, I am going to recommend you calm down. Been there done that and killed a chick. Honestly you can see inside the bator and know if the membrane is still wet or not. If I can tell it is dry (papery look to it), then I help it - SLOWLY, methodically, TINY bits at a time. The wet membrane looks thicker than the dry membrane. It is a judgement call from your HEAD, not your heart. So seperate the two, reexamine the bator and make a decision. And be comfortable with ANY outcome if you decide to help.

I am just going to wait another day or two. They will probably do better on their own. I am just so used to them hatching early in my other bators that I think something's wrong. The brinsea maintains everything so well that they are actually waiting until they're due to hatch!

Ok, if they have pipped and not started zipping within 24 hours and you leave them, they may die. After 24 hours, you can see if the membrane is papery or thick and wet, then decide.

 

[kennedyscochins]

Thanks for the help. I'll give updates in the morning.

 

[kennedyscochins]

Well, I woke up to all three babies! The one I helped made it out okay and alive and so did the other two that I had been watching. I have another one pipping, so I'm not getting those three out just yet. I didn't realize hatches took at least three days to finish. Never had that happen before.