Incubating dilemma by first timer

[blucoondawg]

Have you been helping the stuck ones? I usually don't help much but since you know you have humidity issues and sticky chicks it may pay to help. At least remove a large chunk of shell in the air cell area and the outer membrane. That may let them enough room to work free

 

[Hippy Chix]

No I wasn't helping as I wasn't sure how to go about it & was worried I could make matters worse or have an exploding chick on my hands. Basically, I was being a chicken! Lol Now you've said this, I'll give it a go (with hubby's help perhaps).

 

[blucoondawg]

There is a article on here about helping chicks hatch, it is good to read, basically you can remove some shell from the air cell area and the white or tan membrane that is directly underneath the shell, this is the membrane which doesn't have any blood vessels, then you can see better into the egg and you will see the inner membrane which is the one with the blood vessels, if it still has blood vessels then it isn't quite ready to leave the egg yet so at that point just leave it in the incubator for awhile, then you can keep going little by little if you have to but I never have to help beyond that point as the chick will kick out on it's own when ready, unless they are really dried in then you will need to help further.

Here is the article: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

 

[Hippy Chix]

Awesome article, really thorough & very helpful. Thanks so much. I'm off to give it a go now

 

[Wyleiria]

If this is the Janoel 48 incubator, the thermometer and hydrometer are very, very inaccurate. I unfortunately relied on the readings of this incubator for the first two weeks of my first set of eggs (ducks and geese) and when I finally got the thermometer/hygrometer I was waiting for walmart to get in stock, I was shocked at how off the readings were. I had it set for 99.5 F (its in Celsius, but I don't have my phone near me to convert) and the actual reading was 94 F! That's not the worst part, the hygrometer on the incubator was reading at 48%, and it was actually at 71%!! I KILLED all my poor eggs because of the horrible accuracy of this incubator. I have set another clutch, but I have to ignore the readings on the incubator because they are so off. It does however keep a constant temperature. When I contacted the seller on ebay, they said I had to send a picture of the incubator for them to do anything about it.

The only thing I can think about water dripping out, is there are two places to pour water into to increase humidity, and the rest of the bottom of the tray does have holes to "leak" water out, maybe as a fail safe if you accidentally pour water into the wrong spot? I did it accidentally, and my humidity shot up to 75%. I hope all went well with your hatch!

 

[Hippy Chix]

Yep, it's the same incubator, I've googled the Janoel 48 & it's exactly the same look as the one I purchased. I've popped the incubator back into the polystyrene crate that it was packaged in to try & insulate the bottom so that the temp can hold as warm as possible. It seems to be working as it's now sitting around 37.9•C & finally, the humidity is holding between 57-60%. 2 chicks required assistance as they were "Stuck" so I peeled back a tiny bit of shell around the pip hole & punctured the membrane, they both broke out instantly in my hand as soon as I misted the membrane & it softened. It was very dry. I'm not bothering to fill the water channels as they simply pour straight out. Days ago I placed a large dish of hot water in the middle & a sponge inside that & I've been misting with hot water every 4hrs ish. Since stabilizing the temp & humidity several more eggs have started to rock n roll around. The 2 hatched chicks that needed help are still inside the bator to dry & regain strength as they appeared quite weak after a 3 day struggle. Many eggs are heavy, warm & moving. There's the odd pip but nothing too impressive to get excited about just yet. I'm holding on to hope we will see further success though.