Need really fast help - wafer blew and hatch is in progress

[lemuckley_flock]

Son of a bleep. I've got a HovaBator 1602n running right now - the model with the wafer thermostat. I've got 22 eggs in there, we're late day 20. Five are pipped, one chick almost out, and we heard a huge *PING*.....temp has dropped to 96*. I'm hovering over it, adjusting it non-stop, trying to get the heat back up without getting it too hot, but I'm about 90% sure the wafer blew. Piece of doo, we just replaced the wafer in it 6 weeks ago, no way I thought it was about to go, and I don't have a backup. My other bator is set up at my daughters school with eggs right now, so I don't have that available.

What do I do? We've got every possible heating thing going in the house, trying to establish SOMETHING that will give a good temp. Right now we're trying a heating pad with a rubbermaid tub over it, but I don't think we're going to get to the right temp. I'm seriously considering sticking them all in my shirt - totally freaking out.

Help me save this hatch - I'm open to ANY suggestions you might have.

 

[lemuckley_flock]

Never mind, my OP was last night, it's morning now, too late.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Did any make it?

 

[3forfree]

don't leave us hanging here, how'd it go?

 

[lemuckley_flock]

I Out of 22 eggs, so far SEVEN have hatched and five more are pipped. I'm calling this hatch a raging success based on the bator failure, even if not another one hatches.

My PSA - always have a back up plan - ALWAYS. I won't be without an extra wafer or bator ever again.

And I'll post pics when I start moving babies to the brooder.

 

[fried green eggs]

How terrible

. I am so glad you are getting some out of this ! It's made me think even with a 2nd incubator as back up and a extra wafer - it would take time to get it just right to transfer eggs to. My next hatch I will do in our spare bathroom because it's easy to control temp and humidity in there. Thanks for the lesson.

 

[3forfree]

good for you, I had a thermostat quit about 15 days into my last hatch. Fortunately for me and the eggs I had another bator that I was testing on heat and took the thermostat from it (water bed thermo) so I could just stick it in a hole in the styrofoam bator and continue, it worked out welll. good luck with the rest of the hatch.

 

[lemuckley_flock]

So I've ended up with 13 chicks. This has to have been the most stressful hatch ever. Once the thermostat popped temp regulation became a nightmare, and I had to keep opening the bator to let heat out because it was going either too high or too low....of course, I had zero humidity regulation, and it would bounce between 40% when opened to 90% when closed. And everyone was shrink wrapping, badly. The first few - the ones who were already really close when it went - were able to make it out on their own. The remainder, though....I watched very closely, and one by one they weakened with no progress. So I'd chip away shell and pull back the outer membrane. Vessels were all dry but they were wrapped tight. So I'd pull back a little of the inner, wrapped membrane and put them back....after over an hour of struggle I had to help them all the way out. I know, don't help. But they were certainly going to die, not because they were 'weak chicks' but because the bator was so wacked. I figured they were going to die if I did nothing, so I did something. I gave #13 all night to try, and s/he made zero progress in over 8 hours and was wrapped so tightly that I was able to remove the entire shell and outer membrane this morning, and s/he still couldn't break through the inner membrane.

What a nightmare.

I think I lost the rest of them. Going to let them be another 24 hours just in case, and open them tomorrow to see if the bator bomb was the reason they didn't hatch, or if they didn't make it quite long enough.

 

[cmfarm]

So sorry things ended up bad. I had a waffer thermostat go out like that once to. It also made a pop sound. I had some BCM eggs in (fortunently they were local and the guy I bought them from didn't charge very much. They were about 3 days away from hatching all died. I'm glad to here that you did get 13 to hatch. I would have helped them too, I'm sure the would have hatched on their own if things had gone right.