I think so...did I do the right thing?

[Jus1]

Meet 6. He is the 6th numbered egg and the only baby out of 12 to develope under a female of mine that went broody.We had to pull 6 and put him in our incubator with other eggs we bought because mama gave up after she got frightened by weed eating around the pen. Still 6 managed to make it and was the 1st one out, and rather quickly I may add. Some how he found his way under the water channel we have in the incubator, and a tiny spot the resting egg tray didn't cover. He was on the wet bottom floor away from heat and traction. Thankfully I am overly watchful when babies start hatching so he was found within an hour. My instinct was to save this little guy even though I knew 6 other eggs had pipped. I had to remove the other 36 eggs just to lift the tray to get 6. I went as lighting fast as I could by myself, but knew what the odds were for the rest of the hatch. Sure enough no other eggs hatched. My husband says he has mixed feelings about me saving 1 to lose 36 others. While he understands, he's torn. For me it was easy, the other babies (while it's sad) had not hatched. I have no idea of they would have suffered in their shells or pass peacefully. I knew 6 was born, cold, and wet and would suffer for sure. Any thoughts on what happened? I'm starting to feel horrible even though I have this sweet little baby

 

[Pyxis]

Opening the incubator for a couple of minutes during lockdown doesn't ruin a hatch, so what you did had no bearing on why the others didn't hatch. Did you crack them open to try to find the reason that they didn't make it?

 

[Jus1]

Opening the incubator for a couple of minutes during lockdown doesn't ruin a hatch, so what you did had no bearing on why the others didn't hatch. Did you crack them open to try to find the reason that they didn't make it?

I didn't just open the incubator. I had to pull all of the eggs completely out. They would have rolled off the tray if I didn't. They were put into a basket and under a brooding lamp for warmth. They were fully out for a good 5 minutes. No I didn't cut them open, I wouldn't know what a shrink wrapped baby looked like I don't think

 

[Pyxis]

I didn't just open the incubator. I had to pull all of the eggs completely out. They would have rolled off the tray if I didn't. They were put into a basket and under a brooding lamp for warmth. They were fully out for a good 5 minutes. No I didn't cut them open, I wouldn't know what a shrink wrapped baby looked like I don't think

That still wouldn't have ruined them. There's a lot of overblown alarm out there about opening the incubator during lockdown but opening it up for a bit really doesn't hurt the eggs or their chances of hatching. I do it all the time with no effect on hatch rate. I'm not saying to open it up willy nilly for no reason of course, but if there is a reason, it doesn't hurt anything.

It's very possible those eggs were dead long before lockdown if you didn't crack them open to check. Something else could have killed them earlier in incubation, like a heat spike, or the humidity might not have been right so they drowned, etc. No way to tell without opening them to see.

So what I'm saying is, don't blame yourself because moving the eggs and opening the incubator for five minutes did not kill them

 

[Jus1]

That still wouldn't have ruined them. There's a lot of overblown alarm out there about opening the incubator during lockdown but opening it up for a bit really doesn't hurt the eggs or their chances of hatching. I do it all the time with no effect on hatch rate. I'm not saying to open it up willy nilly for no reason of course, but if there is a reason, it doesn't hurt anything.

It's very possible those eggs were dead long before lockdown if you didn't crack them open to check. Something else could have killed them earlier in incubation, like a heat spike, or the humidity might not have been right so they drowned, etc. No way to tell without opening them to see.

So what I'm saying is, don't blame yourself because moving the eggs and opening the incubator for five minutes did not kill them

We did have a heat spike actually. I found it jumped to 111°. I immediately turned off the temperature control box so it would cool down. I had no ideal why or how it jumped up when I keep it set to 100° and should have cut off before it got higher.

 

[Pyxis]

That temperature would have been more than hot enough to kill them if it stayed that high long enough to heat the internal temperature of the eggs up. That is very possibly what did them in. So, totally out of your control and not your fault at all.

 

[MROO]

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We did have a heat spike actually. I found it jumped to 111°. I immediately turned off the temperature control box so it would cool down. I had no ideal why or how it jumped up when I keep it set to 100° and should have cut off before it got higher.

Depending on how long the temps were up, that might have had an effect on your eggs, but not necessarily. So many things can affect hatch rates; temps, humidity, turning issues, movement (shipped eggs are notorious for poor hatch rates.) Mama Broody gets off her eggs regularly to eat, drink and dust bathe, so moving them for five, or even ten minutes would not have cancelled your hatch. At worst, you would have lost a handful, not the whole 'bator's worth.
So, don't beat yourself up. It happens. It absolutely stinks, but it happens. The key now is to figure out why and circumvent the problem for next time. Personally, I would suspect an incubator issue for a loss that major (and because the only egg that made it was started under a broody.) If you use it again, start with a small test-run, not a full load.
And good luck!

 

[Jus1]

Now I just have to figure out why it spiked. It never should have done that. I check babies every hour once they start to hatch. So if if had started to spike in between visits it could have been up for an hour

 

[Jus1]

And they were shipped eggs. My females had not been with males at that time

 

[MROO]

Now I just have to figure out why it spiked. It never should have done that. I check babies every hour once they start to hatch. So if if had started to spike in between visits it could have been up for an hour

If it happened early on, it would definitely kill a fragile embryo. If it happened during hatch, it would bake a tired baby. If it happened regularly during incubation, while you were busy living the rest of your life, it could have cost you the whole hatch. You may have just found your problem. Is there anyway you can do a dry run and monitor temps? A good computer geek with some sort of thermal tester would come in very handy. Find yourself a teenager with too much computer time on his/her hands and set yourself up an experiment. You'd know within a week if you can trust your incubator or not.