Please help! House finch rejected her 4 eggs!

[Duckybabes]

So usually I don’t do anything when I see a nest and mind my own business but we put a bird feeder by our front door and just love bird watching. Well I was outside with my kids watching them play and what I believe is a house finch (thought it was a robin until I saw google pics of eggs) over the course of 50 minutes, carried four eggs (one at a time with lots of effort) and plopped them into a flower pot beneath on the ground. Of course I sat there bewildered. She flew away after she dropped the eggs. I took the kids inside and waited an hour. Nothing. I put gloves on (I’m a nurse) and gently placed the eggs back in the nest. (Probably shouldn’t have??) and went inside. Later that day I came out to grab something from my car and the eggs were in the flower pot again
So I googled as much as I could and went to the store and bought a 3.00 styrofoam cooler, a 40 watt light bulb with a dimmer, a thermometer, and a humidity gauge. I have a tortoise so I used some of the new hay we bought. Cut a hole in the one side and put in the bulb, set down hay and a bowl of water with sphagnum moss in it, and put the gauges in it. The top of the cooler I cut out and got a frame and took the glass and taped the glass on the cut I had made for a window. I let it all sit and adjusted temps and sprayed water with a spray bottle. After 2 hours it was at a constant 99 degrees F, and 43-45 humidity. I went out and checked and yes the eggs were still there. So I brought them in with gloves and set them in there. I’m pretty sure she laid those eggs that day because her and another bird built that nest super quickly it seemed. It has to be that day or the day prior. So when I put them in the incubator I considered them to be day 2 or 3. Google said wait 5 days and candle. During the next 3 days I rotated the eggs 3 times a day and kept the temp at 99-100 F. The humidity has been 40-43 which now I’m learning is too low ?? Two eggs never developed. One was completely cracked on bottom from being plopped down.
Today should be day 9 or 10. And yesterday and today I’ve been rotating 5-7 times, temp is 98-100 mostly, and I have candled them more than I should because the last time I did I didn’t see them move and I thought they were dead
I noticed a small crack on the bottom of one egg but I think the bird is still alive? They aren’t moving barely when i candled them last night and today again is day 10 I think. Any help would be great because I don’t honestly know what I’m doing and google says like 10,000 different things for humidity at day 9+ and temp and rotating. They probably won’t make it but I couldn’t just leave them. I know I should have but just seeing them be thrown out (shouldn’t have trusted mommy bird?) I just couldn’t do nothing.
thank you and sorry post is so long. Here are some pics for you to see what I have been seeing in the eggs and also my home made incubator set up. .

 

[Duckybabes]

All you can do is try. Being such tiny eggs they will lose moisture faster than larger eggs so I would set the humidity quite high - like 55-60%. Finches are difficult to raise from hatch (much easier if their parents at least start the process of feeding them), but like I said, all you can do is try.

I had trouble with a male finch attacking his newborn chicks. It took them having a few clutches for me to figure out what was going on. I thought maybe a mouse was getting into the aviary or something. Then I caught him at it one day. He would bite their toes off. We managed to save some of their babies but there were quite a few losses too.
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oh wow I’m so sorry that happened!! How sad! I’m glad you finally found out what happened! I’m really hoping they will be ok! I upped the humidity to around 55-60 and 100 temp. Do I still turn them? Do I stop at a certain day? Raise temp for hatching? I’m so lost
I just candled them quick! Both seem to be doing ok. I think they are on day 10 MAYBE 9

 

[Quailobsessed]

I found some hatching spotted turtle dove eggs in my front garden. I didn't see any parents around, so I put them in my incubator and waited. They didn't end up hatching. They had probably been left cold for too long.

I hope those eggs hatch!

 

[Duckybabes]

Update: currently in lockdown. We are on day 13 or 14 not sure. But I keep having to spray the incubator to keep humidity at 60 ish. Annoying but doable. Haven’t candled the egg so not even sure if it’s ok. I haven’t turned it starting yesterday and lockdown.
here’s to hoping!!

 

[Quailobsessed]

Update: currently in lockdown. We are on day 13 or 14 not sure. But I keep having to spray the incubator to keep humidity at 60 ish. Annoying but doable. Haven’t candled the egg so not even sure if it’s ok. I haven’t turned it starting yesterday and lockdown.
here’s to hoping!!

I hope something hatches If they do, it should be any day now.

 

[JaeG]

I’m hoping ! I keep checking but I don’t really know if it’s doing well or not because I can’t turn it or anything. I canceled it soooooo slightly and quickly just to make sure that it was alive but it should be any day now if it does. Do they hatch out of the air sac?

The chick will pierce the membrane into the air cell before pipping externally, usually at the lowest point of the air cell, and then finally it will unzip. It may take up to a day or even more to achieve all that so fingers crossed. They can spend up to 24 hours at the internally pipped stage before they externally pip, then the chick still has to absorb the remains of the yolk before it can finally hatch. The unzipping part is the quickest stage of the process so be patient.

 

[JaeG]

It looks like House Finch eggs take 13-14 days to hatch so maybe turn them for a couple more days then put them in lockdown. Use the incubator as your brooder for them until they are starting to feather in, then you can use a heat lamp.

Have you got hand feeding formula all organised? I found an eye dropper was the easiest for finches but initially you'll need something even smaller, like a blunt toothpick. Make sure they don't latch on and swallow it down though as it could hurt their crop. They'll need the formula very watery to begin with so follow the instructions for your formula. The one I used it was 10% formula powder to 90% water initially. Glass eye droppers are great because you can disinfect them. It's really important to have all your equipment super clean and, even though you end up wasting formula, it's really important to make up a new batch every time you feed them.

They will need hourly feeds initially but I found overnight I could leave them about 5-6 hours. I tried to get mine to feed overnight but I could never get them interested enough to warrant getting up, so, despite all the advice online that says you need to feed them through the night initially, I didn't.

Actually, I remembered about this article which might help too:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ociety-finch-from-an-egg-with-pictures.68170/

Let me know how you get on.

 

[Duckybabes]

It looks like House Finch eggs take 13-14 days to hatch so maybe turn them for a couple more days then put them in lockdown. Use the incubator as your brooder for them until they are starting to feather in, then you can use a heat lamp.

Have you got hand feeding formula all organised? I found an eye dropper was the easiest for finches but initially you'll need something even smaller, like a blunt toothpick. Make sure they don't latch on and swallow it down though as it could hurt their crop. They'll need the formula very watery to begin with so follow the instructions for your formula. The one I used it was 10% formula powder to 90% water initially. Glass eye droppers are great because you can disinfect them. It's really important to have all your equipment super clean and, even though you end up wasting formula, it's really important to make up a new batch every time you feed them.

They will need hourly feeds initially but I found overnight I could leave them about 5-6 hours. I tried to get mine to feed overnight but I could never get them interested enough to warrant getting up, so, despite all the advice online that says you need to feed them through the night initially, I didn't.

Actually, I remembered about this article which might help too:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ociety-finch-from-an-egg-with-pictures.68170/

Let me know how you get on.

thank you so much!! I truly appreciate it! I have the light bulb in there but howdo I set it up for brooding incase they hatch? Temp and humidity?
It’s just a styrofoam box I made. Do I use the hay still? Towel? Paper towel? What is lockdown? Like don’t touch them? I’m sorry for all the questions! What day do I lock them down?

 

[JaeG]

thank you so much!! I truly appreciate it! I have the light bulb in there but howdo I set it up for brooding incase they hatch? Temp and humidity?
It’s just a styrofoam box I made. Do I use the hay still? Towel? Paper towel? What is lockdown? Like don’t touch them? I’m sorry for all the questions! What day do I lock them down?

Lockdown just means that you increase the humidity to 60-70% and try to be patient while you wait for them to hatch (which is really difficult). The higher humidity helps the chicks to break out of the shell easily. A bowl of water with a sponge/cloth poking out of it helps to keep the humidity high because it's the amount of wet surface area exposed to the air that will raise the humidity. I'd lock down at the end of day 11 seeing as they take 13-14 days to hatch, and if they take a little longer that's fine too.

I used paper towels in a little plastic container (like a nest) because they could be changed frequently (they sure can poop). I'd keep the temperature around 95F for the chicks once they hatch. Lower it gradually as they begin to grow feathers. They look like they hatch with a bit of down (my Java finch babies were completely naked) so they shouldn't take long to feather in.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Well, day 10 the last two.... the humidity has been 55 ish and temp 99-100. I woke up yesterday and candled them and the infamous blood ring could be seen in one of them. I put it back and waited till last night to check since tomorrow lockdown starts. When I peeked in, the egg was cracked down the middle so I had to get gloves on and get it out of there. Carefully I removed it, changed the hay and sprayed down the incubator put in a water bowl with moss, sprayed the hay and misted the egg turned it one last time and made sure temp was back to 99-100. And lockdown has started for the last egg. I know the chances aren’t and weren’t high but it broke my heart to see the passing of this baby. I don’t know what I did wrong. I’m hoping the last baby hatched and lives. RIP sweet little baby. ❤View attachment 2121675

I'm really sorry about that little chick
I hope the other little one makes it.