Well, I wish I had happy news but unfortunately I don't.. When my son and I first started this adventure, I built my own bator. I've had temp fluctuations but not very often and I overcame the problems pretty quickly. I would say that about 90 percent of the time, The temp stayed in the range I thought it was supposed to, between 100 and 101.5.. I watched it closely and opened a vent or two if it went over 102 and would close it up better if it went below 100.. Well, I buried the strongest chick this morning.. When i got up and i didn't see anything, I can't explain it to you but maybe it was a little birdie (pardon the pun) told me to check the eggs... I know how important the temp and humidity is so i just used the mini mag light and slipped my hand into the bator to put it up to the eggs.. The egg that was holding the strongest chick was amazing but sad at the same time.. I saw it's beak but realized quickly that something was wrong when it was literally gasping for air.. I heard no peeps even though it was through the membrane of the aircell.. The poor thing seemed as if it had very little strength so i poked a small hole in the shell at the top of the aircell as to not harm the check any and then I used a q-tip to dampen the membrane. In less than an hour, the chick died. I took it out and buried it in the backyard.. I came on here to maybe find some answers as i always do and found a post that says for a still air, the temp should be 102 at the top of the eggs.. My temp was too low the entire time because I was being careful not to "fry" them and actually killed them in the process.. I am so sick about this.. I feel like i have failed my son and these poor babies.. If I had to do it all over again, I would let the temp go just a bit higher since it is a still air and maybe they would just hatch a day earlier at the very worst.. I was looking forward to my son watching these little babies hatch.. We still have two eggs in the bator and I have bumped the temp up by about a degree but I'm thinking it's too late.. Like i said, the one that I buried today was the strongest in the whole hatch.. Always had the most movement and the most visible/biggest veins.. And one of the two in there has not had visible movement in about a week although it don't smell or anything...
Goddess
