Shrink wrapping question

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

Btw.... welcome to BYC, glad you joined!

Thank you so much for the warm welcome!! The support and knowledge shared here has been so amazing!!

 

[Nabiki]

Your humidity is affected by the surface area of your water reservoir, not the quantity of water.

See if you can find a small, but deep jar to put inside the incubator. Cover part of the top with tinfoil until you get the desired humidity. If it's deep but narrow, you can fill it with water and not have to refill it often while still having a small surface area to contribute towards your humidity.

 

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

Your humidity is affected by the surface area of your water reservoir, not the quantity of water.

See if you can find a small, but deep jar to put inside the incubator. Cover part of the top with tinfoil until you get the desired humidity. If it's deep but narrow, you can fill it with water and not have to refill it often while still having a small surface area to contribute towards your humidity.

Oh, that’s very helpful! Ok, I will do that, thank you!

 

[Quailophilic]

Well, this hatch came with a pretty tragic learning curve, and I made so many mistakes (the largest one being not knowing to not trust the built in temperature and humidity readers in my unit). I wish I would have known they were so off prior to lockdown day, but it was too late. Out of 27 well developed eggs, 1 hatched free on his/her own, which gave me hope! About 7 others had pipped, so I thought, let’s wait it out, maybe it will just be a late hatch since temps were low/fluctuating to begin with... Going into this, I had it in my mind that I would be completely hands off, as I read about the risks of assisting. However, last night, the humidity had gotten so high (my incubator has no vent holes), that I became concerned with the well-being of the one chick that had hatched. One of you here swiftly offered much needed guidance, and I placed her in the brooder, cracked the lid, and tried to keep the humidity at a lower level. At this point, we were in day 20... The first chick (we’ve named him/her Italy ) is thriving. ❤ Unfortunately, I knew I had issues with the others who were trying so hard to free themselves... 2 pips were actively moving. I could tell that they were trying so hard to zip, but couldn’t. Instead, one’s beak appeared stuck, while the other couldn’t spin, making a series pips along the same area. I could hear their little bodies and chirps giving it all the had! At about 11:30 last night, I began to assist the one what couldn’t spin. It was terrible. I cried, but eventually he/she was freed, and looked good (not much blood in the membrane), but it was so week. I also chipped away just a bit at the area where the others beak was stuck, hoping that by morning it would have made some progress, or at the very least would have been pipped for more than 24 hours. She was shrink wrapped so tightly when I came down at 4:30 this morning. The other chick had dried off so I placed it in with Italy, and they have been cuddle buddies ever since! I hope he/she makes it. After assisting last night, I hoped I would never be in that position again, fearing making a fatal flaw, but here he found ourselves... I’m sure he/she had been struggling ALL night. We began the process, and although he/she was moving and breathing heavily, I could see exhaustion had taken over. Eventually, after nearly having to take him/her completely out, things have been looking optimistic. Still quite weak, but alert. After just a couple of hours I thought the best thing for it would be to move it in with the other chicks. Maybe they would offer snuggles and a bit of encouragement... Well, Italy immediately stepped in, gave just one gentle peck to asses the situation, and literally took the tiny body under her wing. All three are snugged together, and even though it’s too early to tell if they will all make it, I know that without assisting they all would have died, except for Italy. After placing the 3 babes together, I had little hope for any others, so I water candled the ones I was almost certain where dead and hadn’t pipped (after light candling). Nothing. Upon opening each still/sunk egg, I found internal pips and tiny air cells with no life. As anticipated, the humidity was indeed the fatal mistake.

I have learned so much from this experience, and it was been horribly tragic, but I know next time I will be much more aware of the things that can go wrong, and hopefully have all things in place, 2x over, to prevent anything like this from happening again. I’m so sick about the whole thing, but against the odds, there is still life, and that’s what’s I’m going to do my best to focus on from here on out.

Please keep me posted on your hatch, and cheers to these three little fighters! ❤☺

~Aly

I am very sorry.
Please take good care of these three cuties. I know the pain of losing a baby bird at this stage. I've lost 3-4 ringneck doves babies who could not come out of the eggs.
Which one is Italy byw?

 

[Quailophilic]

Not on my humidity and how much it holds... I’ve been running a dry hatch with this new batch of eggs, which has kept a steady 30% humidity. I wanted to raise it to 40% (just a tad higher) so I put in a half teaspoon of water, and it shot up to 60%. I placed a toothpick under the lip of the lid, and it’s slowly going down. I think a big issue with the 56 Eggs incubators is that they have NO vent holes. On both of my machines, there is a place in the center of each lid that looks as though it’s there as a marking for where a hole 🕳 should have been drilled, but wasn’t. I’m considering putting one in myself, since just cracking the lid seems to be helping the humidity naturally escape just a bit... I know we should alter our machines, but since this last hatch proved the machine has many flaws, what are your thoughts?

IMO you should drill a hole in the top of the lid. So that whenever it gets too humid, you can control it. Make 5mm holes on both sides and put in cotton plugs. So you can open when necessary.

 

[mintandmyrtlefarms]

I am very sorry.
Please take good care of these three cuties. I know the pain of losing a baby bird at this stage. I've lost 3-4 ringneck doves babies who could not come out of the eggs.
Which one is Italy byw?

Thank you. We are loving on these, heavily! Italy is the little blondie with the thin black stripes. I THINK she is an Italian feather verity, which lead to her name choice. Watch him/her turn into something completely different.

 

[Quailophilic]

Thank you. We are loving on these, heavily! Italy is the little blondie with the thin black stripes. I THINK she is an Italian feather verity, which lead to her name choice. Watch him/her turn into something completely different.

Just one month and he/she will be a completely different things