Sportsman drying pipped chicks??

[corvidae]

Okay, so this has been my third hatch in my lovely new Sportsman 1502 incubator--up until today, they have all been my own BLRW eggs, but today I had one little lone chick hatching (shipped eggs--the rest didn't make it to lockdown). In all of the hatches, I have noticed that, once the chick pips a moderately large hole, the air movement in in incubator starts drying them out. If they don't get out of the egg fast enough (within a few hours), the outer membrane starts drying on them and they are stuck. I just finished rescuing this last chick, who pipped yesterday morning. Probably should have helped it out sooner, but I was hopeful it would manage on it's own. I've had to help out four other chicks like this--so far, once they are out, they do great, but in every instance, the membrane had dried starting at the pip hole and moving out from there. The further away from the pip hole, the more moist it is.

The Sportsman seems to have a pretty strong fan in it--enough to blow around a double layer of paper towels. At lockdown, I've got the humidity up to 75%--can't seem to get it higher without completely covering all the airvents, but I could put a humidifier bu the incubator itself to help with that if needed. However, with that fan blowing so much air around, I get the feeling I could saturate the dang thing and still end up with stuck chicks. Prior to lockdown, humidity site around 20%.

Has anyone else had this problem with a Sportsman? What the heck do I do about it. I'm worried that if I even partially cover the hatching tray to block some of the breeze in there, it will make it harder to keep the humidity up in that area? I'm not keen on having to bust every chick out of it's egg, and I can't imagine this is normal since the Sportsman's appear to have such a good reputation. As far as incubating, it seems to do a very good job--it's just the actual hatch that is a problem.

I have eggs going into lockdown again on Sunday, so I am looking for a solution to this soon!

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

I've got a 1502 and have done previous hatches in it, only one got stuck but he was a 24 day chick. The fan does move the air which is what I like, helps dry the chicks off. Never have found they've had a problem getting out. All the normal pipps did fine, it's that late day one that had the issue. Of course by then I had opened it up to get the chicks out. Good luck getting your issue fixed.

 

[corvidae]

I do like the fact that they fluff out better/faster, for sure. All the chicks that have hatched have been day 20-21, but it seems like most of them are taking 24+ hours to get out and that nice little blow dryer is drying the membrane as they go. I'm wondering though--I tend to put the eggs towards the from of the hatching tray, just so I can see them a little better. Seems like that is where the air is coming down the hardest, so perhaps if I move them to the back of the hatching tray?

It's about the only thing I can think to try. I think I might also try some screen covered baby jars of water in the front of the hatching tray--that might raise the humidity a bit and cut the main blast of the airflow better?

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

I guess I'm just not worred about it. I went out this morning, bunch are hatched and some more have pipped. Yesterday morning one had pipped but to me it looked like the membrane had dried out. Came home last night, still the same pipp, no advancement. Went out this morning and the little bugger had hatched. Now I'm not anywhere near the humidity I read others using, they're up in the 80's. I incubate at about 35 and then hatch at about 45-50%. I don't think the air movement with the humidity at this level will completely dry the membrane, Yes, where they pipp it looks like it does but they still work their way around and get out.