Very small air cells on day 16 - Please help me save these babies.

[calichickies]

Hi all you wonderfully helpful people!
I have screwed up my hatch - humidity way too high for too long.
Air cells the size of day 7 or smaller even. Got 11 eggs on day 16. All are alive.
As I am heading into day 18 very soon... I'm looking for some advice on what to do.
Should I hatch in an egg carton with them sitting straight up - would that help?
Or should I lay them on their sides, or should I have them in little cut off paper cups at a slight angle?
Should I NOT up the humidity until day 19 or 20 maybe?
Anyone with experience going into the crucial hatching days with very small air cells/sacks?
What did you do to try to make sure your chicks made it?
Any advice is VERY much appreciated.
This is my very first hatch ever. I'm learning a lot but still have so much more to learn.
I'd love to hear any advice you have for me on what to do for these last 4 or 5 days.
Thanks so much!!

 

[Habibs Hens]

i have just had the same issue im on day 8

my humidity just wouldnt go down

i realised i had the fan on the wrong way

just did the worlds fastest dismatle and reassemble of my incubator turning fan over and humidity has started going down

what i would suggest is turn off fan or lift bator by 5mm so humidity can escape yet still maintain temps

keep the humidity on a dry hatch about 25-30% and even in lockdown keep it low

not untill day 20 should you increase humidity and that is at 65% no more

hopefully you should loose enough weight by then

 

[Habibs Hens]

one thing to remember teh high lockdown humidity is advised on day 18 as desired weight should be gained by then

if its not then keeping low humidity further is not an issue

only remeber that high humidity is required so that cell membraine does not dry out during hatch

so along as a pip has not occured the humidity can be low without a problem

just keep on top of it and make sure humidity is high for hatch

hatch being the keyword here

 

[Denise661]

Hi all you wonderfully helpful people! 
I have screwed up my hatch - humidity way too high for too long. 
Air cells the size of day 7 or smaller even.  Got 11 eggs on day 16.  All are alive. 
As I am heading into day 18 very soon... I'm looking for some advice on what to do. 
Should I hatch in an egg carton with them sitting straight up - would that help? 
Or should I lay them on their sides, or should I have them in little cut off paper cups at a slight angle? 
Should I NOT up the humidity until day 19 or 20 maybe?
Anyone with experience going into the crucial hatching days with very small air cells/sacks? 
What did you do to try to make sure your chicks made it? 
Any advice is VERY much appreciated. 
This is my very first hatch ever.  I'm learning a lot but still have so much more to learn. 
I'd love to hear any advice you have for me on what to do for these last 4 or 5 days. 
Thanks so much!!

can we know what humidity levels % and temperature you had it thanks.

 

[Arielle]

I had this happen to me, don't worry about upping humidity right now, goodness I've had so many chicks hatch without upping the humidity because they were left in the incubator too long and never got into the hatcher BEFORE hatching.

Increase the ventialtion. Decrease the humidity in the room and therefore the incubator. I'm assuming you have a table top model not a huge one. So use an AC to drop the humidity, and a fan inside the incubator. YOu can also us a fan to blow across the top to help draw out moist air-- someone suggested this for my situation.

THere is not a lot of time to get the moisture level down in the eggs. no matter how you set the eggs , sides or in egg cartons, there is too much moisture in the eggs.

Open all the vents. I put a fan under one of the vents on my LG and pulled moist air out very fast.

Only time will tell if you can get the moisture level down enough. GIve it a go!!

 

[Arielle]

You can also use a dehumidifier. to drop the RH--just watch the temps as this machine also adds a LOT of heat to the room and can cause spiking. Well worth using under the circumstances.

 

[calichickies]

Thank you so much everyone!
Let this be a lesson to me and everyone else- this is what happens when you have two different hatch dates in one (tabletop Styrofoam) bator (staggered over a week). I just had 5 eggs due last Fri/Sat and I had to up the humidity for them, and I feel like my air cells were too small to begin with so I knew problems would arise. Out of the 5 eggs, 4 hatched (some with help) and one drowned (too big, didn't turn, got knocked around after the first ones hatched-- poor thing). During the hatch the H was up to 65/80 at times.
So now I have removed all water, and I am opening the bator often to turn 5x's a day and let out the humidity. And it's down to around 30 now- which is great but I just hope it's not too little too late. The eggs seem to like the cooling periods, and it might even help to delay the hatch a bit so that even more moisture can evaporate. Thanks for the info on the late humidity-- it's nice to know it's not really needed in this case because the eggs are so moist already. I think I will hatch in the cups with the air cells slightly elevated. And I'm not going to put a wet sponge in there until I see a pip. I will be standing by to 'help' if I can. I feel so bad. It's totally my error that is making this hatch so hard for these eggs.
ONLY one hatch date at a time. (My new mantra).
Next time I'm going to try the dry method, as my bator stays at 30% H with no water in it at all.
Such a tough learning curve as lives are hanging in the balance.
Thanks again everyone, it's so nice to know there are helpful people out there that have gone thru the same thing, and are willing to share info.

 

[Arielle]

FYI

When the chicks internally pip, they push upward into the air cell area giving themselves a liile wiggle room, however the bill is still tucked under the wing. If there is too much moisture around the chick it cannot breath properly.

Very important to get that air cell size to where it should be so the egg will be dry enough around the chick AND so the chick is not swelled up with extra fluids so it can externally pip and zip.

30% may not be low enough--that is what I average for a good hatch. Can you bring it down to20%? Or anything lower than 30 might help.

I like your idea of opening the lid to turn the eggs and release moisture. And heat which might delay hatching.

You can other things like dried rice to absorb the extra moisture, just change it frequently for dry rice ( heat in oven to drive off moisture).

Do you have a fan???

 

[calichickies]

Thanks Arielle for all your help and your wonderful suggestions and support.
I do not have a fan in my bator. Darn it.
I will keep trying to help these little eggs, and I hope my bad experience can be a lesson for others of what not to do. :/

 

[calichickies]

i have just had the same issue im on day 8

my humidity just wouldnt go down

i realised i had the fan on the wrong way

just did the worlds fastest dismatle and reassemble of my incubator turning fan over and humidity has started going down

what i would suggest is turn off fan or lift bator by 5mm so humidity can escape yet still maintain temps

keep the humidity on a dry hatch about 25-30% and even in lockdown keep it low

not untill day 20 should you increase humidity and that is at 65% no more

hopefully you should loose enough weight by then

Thanks so much for your help and support!

I will be cheering these eggs on in the next couple days,
and I'll let you know what happens.
Think good thoughts.