Talk me off the ledge! Incubation day 22

[Pygora]

My story is of shipped eggs in the year 2025...
Currently in the morning of day 22 and one of six is definitely rocking and peeping, has been since late in the day 20. No external pips.

Finding my self reading the threads on assisted hatching, despite swearing I would never do so...

First time using an incubator. Borotto Real 24 with Sirio humidifier and egg turner. Followed directions in the Borotto manual (Incubate at 99.7 with humidity at 45RH through day 17, 99.2 from day 18 with humidity increased - however after an episode where the pump almost flooded the incubator, I am only able to get it to up to 56 RH or so, rather than suggested 65-70.

Meanwhile, one egg already hatched on day 19. Yesterday after letting her (humor me) stand alone in the brooder with her egg siblings for 24 hours, I liberated her to be with some brooder buddies hastily obtained from TSC to keep her company. I put in a crumpled wet paper towel when I retrieved chick #1, still RH is 55.

 

[Pygora]

Chick #2, day 22!

 

[casportpony]

Congratulations and welcome to BYC! How many more eggs are there?

 

[Pygora]

Busy day and emotional rollercoaster. Hedemora pictured above did not make it, sadly. A couple hours later a Shetland Hen egg speed-hatched with great vigor.

Currently there are three Hedemora and one Shetland egg left, now at day 22. Faint chirping from one of the Hedemora eggs, but no pip.

I have corrected the RH to 63 with the addition of balled-up wet paper towels in the corners of the incubator, away from the eggs.

 

[Pygora]

Shetland #1

 

[SnackMeat]

I'm not necessarily saying this is the way to go but I would poke a hole in the shell at the fat end to allow oxygen in and make it big enough that I can see the chick has inner pipped and has air.

Having done that before I would wait four or so hours and then make a half inch or so crack and repeat every four hours or so (never going below the "shoulders" as they need to kick off the bottom of the shell to engage all those leg muscles and tendons.)

Also depends on if you know if your hens normally lay extra thick walled eggs or not.

I know some live by the whole "I don't interfere" and I'll admit I have interfered too early before, but three things would cause me to step in now:

1. How long since the inner pip? 24+ hours...maybe. 48ish hours, I'm going in.

2. Play a YouTube video of chicks chirping and see how much it peps up the egg. That's your baseline. Repeat every few hours and when it gets weaker, go in.

3. Most important: candle the egg (preferably in a humid environment, but if not it's not likely to be the end of the world. People's stories of shrink wrapping scared the crap out of me and I've found that shrink wrapping was a much smaller threat than what it had been made out to be-- at least from my experience.) if there is any veins visible, maybe do the air hole in the egg, maybe not. But don't do anything else beyond the air hole.


When those veins disappear, and if the chick seems to be weakening, then yes, go in and crack the eggs to just below one wing and leave it. If it's been a long hard hatch, take a qtip, dip in save a chick, and swab the beak. Or take a tiny soda cap and fill and rotate beak into cap. I've had some surprisingly thirsty ones when I've done this and helped even though they were mostly in the egg.

Then swab the membrane with warm water, or coconut oil, or similar.


Keep in mind, with the egg open, their temperature is colder. It's best if you have a laser temp gun so you can laser the chicks and adapt from there. I tend to put them in the warmest part of the incubator (there's always hot spots) and reevaluate. Humidity, by this point is not a fear because you can directly swab the membrane to keep it pliable.

 

[Pygora]

Wow, you are brave. I wonder if I could have saved the one that expired today. Not sure I have it in me to do this shell surgery.

 

[SnackMeat]

There's a lot of space in the fat end so smacking a hole or even digging one with a sewing needle isn't too hard because the egg becomes more porous over time so when it's hatch time it *should* be thinner.

I do find it helpful to open the dead eggs to see if the fetus was positioned wrong, or hadn't absorbed the yolk, or if it was a double yolk. This can help you with later incubations.

I had one a few days ago that was positioned wrong and I do wish I had given it a couple more days, but everyone else was hatched or almost out. But it's head wasn't even in the right spot. So either, even with egg rotation and vertical incubation, it had spent too much time in a cooler spot and matured slower (unlikely) or something else went wrong.


But then, if you're only hatching once a year or less than I can see the appeal of "not looking behind the curtain" to problem solved for the future. Because sometimes they just die and there isn't an answer.