Need advice... PLEASE

[mdulik]

I am on day 20 and up until now everything has been perfect. I went into my incubator room this morning and the humidity in the bator dropped to 24% and I noticed that my water tray was bone dry. I have a 5 gallon bucket with a hose to the tray and the bucket was still half full. I know it is against the law to open the bator on day 20 but I had to get water into the tray, and now the humidity is back where it should be..Will this little episode spoil my hatch?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Only time will tell. Some of the chicks may be shrink-wrapped inside, but maybe not. They are surprisingly tough critters. When I opened mine during hatch, the only one that was shrink-wrapped was one that had pipped. The rest were not affected. Yours is a different situation, though, since the humidity got so low. It was certainly not a good thing and it may prove to be pretty bad, but then maybe not. I sure wish you good luck.

To add water to mine during lockdown, I take those straws that have the bend joint in them, put a few together so I can reach the reservoirs, and use a syringe I got at Tractor Supply on the medication department to squirt water in there through a vent opening.

 

[mdulik]

Thank you for the reply. The upside is that I found 4 eggs tonight with little cracks in them. I have 19 total, so we shall see how it plays out. If the situation becomes apparent that they are shrink-wrapped, what do I do? this is my very first hatch and it has alot of sentimental value for other reasons.

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
If you have to open the bator to help shrink wrapped chicks you can bring it into the bathroom (carefully!!) and jack the heat up and run a hot shower to get the humidity in there good and high. That's a last resort though so be sure to give things a bit of time and make sure you have shrink wrapped chicks before you do it. The big danger is that you will worsen the problem you're trying to fix. Hoping all will go well for you! Like Ridgerunner said, they can be amazingly resiliant. I had a broody get off the nest for what I think was most of the day (she got back on the wrong eggs) and all but one of the viable eggs hatched anyhow. Nothing like what you have going on, but does show how they can surprise you.

 

[mdulik]

Thank you kittymomma, I appriciate the advice. I cant move my bator to the bathroom bacause its a cabinet style bator and it would take a couple of us to move it. At this point anxious and excited ( a little worried too). Tomarrow is hatch day and go figure, I have an early morning Dr. appointment that is out of town, so i will be gone all morning. I am very encouraged to see 4 of them already trying to make their way into the world. I will update sometime tomorrow.