I have most certainly learned a valuable lesson. "Leave well enough alone" I wish I could go back and help that baby somehow but there was nothing I could do once the egg was cracked. I just hope the other 3 hatch.
I seriously messed up my first hatch by twiddling in the incubator. I needed to get in there, but I couldn't leave it alone after that and then I thought they were all dead and I took them right out of the incubator and I'm pretty sure they were still alive. It was a lot of chicks too that I killed. And then I only had one chick that I had to keep alive and it was very difficult. Then my next hatch was just too dry and I killed all of them.
So here I am with this hatch and just so you know you're not alone, I will share my story of today with you. I know now no matter what happens leave things alone, but my DH came home from work and he was so excited about the chicks. I left him downstairs unsupervised because I thought he was admiring my babies. LOL, no way....he was using a coat hanger and sticking in the side of my bator and rearranging my egg crates and picking the shell off a chick. The temps dropped to 91. I about fainted when I saw what he was doing. I was like, did I authorize you to mess inside of my incubator, dear? There were no more pips, nobody was trying to hatch. I thought he killed them. I was so sick about it after everything I have been through with the past two hatches. But you know what, you really do have to learn. Then he started wanting to save the chicks. He wanted to open the incubator. I said no. What happens happens. I've already learned once you step in it causes a series of events and then you keep trying to fix what went wrong and it usually ends up worse. He kept saying do you want me to do this or that and I said I just don't know what to do. I think we should leave it alone. Maybe someone will pip later. We shouldn't open the incubator.
I know he didn't mean to do anything that would cause harm to the chicks, he just got excited and couldn't help himself. I understand because I've been there too. I told him we'll just learn from this and it's going to be okay. We have three pretty chicks and let's just leave it at that if it doesn't go well. So off he went to bed and I went on doing what I needed to do. Every once in a while I looked in the bator and there was nothing. I thought they were dead. So tonight at around 8:00 one of the silkie chicks I thought he killed popped out of the shell. Then about 20 minutes later the other silkie chick popped out of the shell. Then three minutes later a Red popped out of the shell. There are pips on all but one egg, and I may just not be able to see it.
I have learned to not mess with the incubator, do not mess with the broody hen.
I moved my broody last weekend because her chicks were getting ready to be born. She sat there for two days and it was fine. On Saturday I went to the barn and she moved and buried the eggs. They were dead. Those were my two special Buttercup eggs of only three known ones. They were set to be born on Monday. Then I moved Yetta away from Buttercup Sunday evening because they are literally sitting head to head and I was afraid they would fight over chicks and kill the babies. Monday morning I found her back next to her friend and her chicks were dead. One of them appeared to be close to pipping out. There are four chicks I killed because I didn't leave well enough alone. I've learned, not all broodies will let you move them. My Maggie will. She will come in and sit happily in my bathroom for weeks on end and be like a queen. She comes in most days and I take her downstairs and she lays her egg in the baby pen. I've learned Maggie thinks she's my house chicken!!!!
You will come to know what to do, when to do, when to leave things alone. We are all learning everyday. Hang in there. You are going to get the hang of it.
And I bet my DH never messes with my bator again!!!!!
Even my son keeps coming to me saying, mom, this or that is going on in the bator and I'm like, well, it will work itself out. Things are going to be okay. I'm not opening the bator. He now knows we're not opening the bator!
Yeah, it's been a long day around here. I'm ready for tomorrow to get those babies out.
And if anyone needs any more stories about the dumb ideas I come up with, they are free. I have a zillion of them. I'm always studying on things and trying to figure things out and in the process I have real doozies! I call them my good ideas gone bad.
Off to get pictures of my little ones while they are still all ugly and wet.
I have 2 more (d'uccle) due on Friday and set 24 Americauna eggs someone gave my yesterday 
