Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!

Kim and Cali, were you both doing dry hatches? I think that what I've read is that if the humidity is too low and too much moisture evaporates through the shell, the chick can get too big in the shell to be able to move to position itself to pip and zip. Perhaps trying to keep the humidity up a little higher next time might help??
 
Sooooooooooooo, if this chick isn't moving.............is it dead?
I know I probably sound stupid, but I don't want to throw it away if it is just resting.
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I didn't think to take pictures of ours, but that is pretty much what I saw. There was one that just had a little egg sac to absorb and the others had absorbed the entire thing. So why would they be alive and absorb the sac and ours the blood vessels were shut down so no blood came through the membrane and not pip out and die inside the shell like they suffocated?????? When we find the answer to this question, we will know exactly what went wrong.....at least that's what I'm hoping.
Okay...so the lady in Costa Rica I was talking about, her chick hatched out. She has pictures of it. She put it on top of a heating pad and covered it with a towel, or something, to dry it off and fluff it up and is planning on adding it to the broody hen with her chicks when it's dry. I forgot to ask what the ambient temps and humidity are, but I think her story could have some very useful info. Here we are keeping a close eye on everything and hers hatches by itself. Also, I want to say when my little Peppie was born, I didn't even know Sophie had a fertile egg and didn't know when it was supposed to hatch. So I looked in it on the 4th of February and it was born on the 7th of February. So I took it away from her and candled it and it didn't hurt it. Then on that Tuesday morning I got Sophie up to go outside to use the restroom and I heard this peeping and figured out it was coming from the egg and picked it up and listened to it and got my husband to listen to it and then went in the house to get the kids to listen to it. Still didn't hurt it. Later that afternoon I went out and moved Sophie over a little and then checked on it again that night when I got home. Still didn't hurt it. So how do you figure that out????? I never touched that day until the end and then kept messing with it and it didn't appear to hurt it at all. So much to think on.
 
Kim and Cali, were you both doing dry hatches? I think that what I've read is that if the humidity is too low and too much moisture evaporates through the shell, the chick can get too big in the shell to be able to move to position itself to pip and zip. Perhaps trying to keep the humidity up a little higher next time might help??


Yes, I sort of did a dry hatch. My humidity was b/n 20-35% the first 18 days. What doesn't make since is, WHY did SOME of the chicks hatch out just fine and others have trouble?
Should I just eggtopsy and discard ALL of these 6 eggs. I feel too "numb with emotion" and this is too "personal" to make this call.
 
Sooooooooooooo, if this chick isn't moving.............is it dead?
I know I probably sound stupid, but I don't want to throw it away if it is just resting.
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You could probably see some breathing if it is alive. As far as why some have dried out and not others I'm pondering that myself. However when you candle you can sometime see which eggs have big pores and which don't. Did you notice anything like that?
 
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You could probably see some breathing if it is alive. As far as why some have dried out and not others I'm pondering that myself. However when you candle you can sometime see which eggs have big pores and which don't. Did you notice anything like that?
I just opened up all 6 eggs and did eggtopsies.
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It appears that every one of them was upside down and the beak was NOT positioned toward the air cell. Yes, some were shrink wrapped...especially the ones with lopsided aircells, which must have grown even after I marked them on Day 18 before putting them in lockdown. I'm wondering if next time I should raise humidity on day 16 or 17? I'm thinking this because THATS the day they are supposed to turn their beak toward the aircell. If there isn't enough room at that point, they seemingly continue to develop but are unable to turn or pip.
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Well, many lessons learned from this experience. Won't be doing it again for awhile.
I'm really glad atleast 4 were able to hatch out OK...now I can just focus on them since I emptied the 'bator
 
Ggarrett - I did a dry hatch and my humidity was low. If I don't get a decent hatch rate this time with the eggs that are already in the bator, next I will try with more humidity.
What do you recommend to keep it at or what do you keep it at? Also, why do you think your one last chick shrink wrapped?
Cali Chick, I don't think it's resting. It would move or do something if it was still alive. It's okay to let go. You didn't do this on purpose...it was an accident. One day you will figure this out and have great hatches. Ggarrett has let us know she didn't start out too well and look at where she is at now. We are going to be there one day too.
Kim
 
I'm thinking since humidity is so tricky I am going to invest in a scale that will weigh the egg. I have read it is supposed to lose 12 - 13% of its weight so if I went by weight, I wouldn't have to guess where my humidity would be so much. Does anyone else use a scale and if so what kind?
 
We had to euthanize our little premie. her eyes weren't that well formed and she had a crook neck neck that was still in egg position. her feel eventually uncurled and she was trying to walk and she would flop over and cry and cry.. it was heartbreaking.

I got her to eat vitamin water, and it DID give her energy, but I don't thin she would survive much longer and the last hour or so she started suffering. But it did give me faith in these vitamin mixes for chicks that are borderline in the future, it solved the weak and early issue, just not the malformed issue :(.

Everyone else is doing great. I DID have to move the bigger guys into something with a top, they were jumping in with the babies and they can fly now, so there was no stopping them. Speedy took a dislike to one of the little silkies and was biting it. So off to the dogcrate they went. They are NOT HAPPY with me atm, lol. But an indignant Maran peeing *** at me is probably exactly what I need now :).

 
I've been pondering my incubation experience and these are some thoughts about what might have gone wrong with my particular hatch and what I would do different next time:

-Because these were "shipped" eggs...Next time I would put them in egg cartons and NOT turn them for the first 2 days. I'm thinking this alone would allow the aircell to settle toward the FAT end of the egg like it is supposed to.
*When I first set the eggs I was using a (borrowed) Brower 845 which didn't have room for egg cartons...learned the hard way when I tried egg cartons & the heatbox on the underside of the lid crushed the tallest egg. There was a Day 3 or 4 embryo inside... I tried he cartons on Day 3 after reading about them...too late maybe + the lid issue.
*I had them on their sides and turned them 3X a day from day 1. My aircells were all over the place; lopsided, crooked and wavy. Obviously some of the aircells recovered because some looked great and I did have 4 chicks hatch.

-Next hatch I will keep my humidity around 25-35% for the first 15 days and monitor aircells. If aircells look textbook I will keep it around 35% until lockdown and then bump it up to 65-70% on Day18. If the aircells look too big, I will bump it up to around 45% (day 15) and bump it up to 65-70% during lockdown.
*This time I kept it around 20-25% until about Day 15 and aircells were too big in some and good in others...so I did bump it up to about 35%, but it obviously wasn't high enough.
-My next hatch will be done Day 1 through Day 21 in the SAME incubator.
*The HovaBator I used for lockdown was very consistant with temperatures and humidity and I would love to use it again all the way through and see how it would do.

Those are just MY observations which I wanted to post so I can have a record of my experience. This should help me when I'm ready to incubate again...I hope it helps others too.
Thank you so much to everyone who joined in and went through this hatch together. Are any of you taking a break like me or are you all jumping right back in with another hatch?
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Cali Chick, a thought occurs to me. I saw you had marked where your air cells were before lockdown. Did you notice any correlation in the size of the air cell between the chickens that did hatch and the ones that did not? For instance, the smaller cells hatched and the larger did not or vice versa?
 

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