What is shrink-wrapped and how do I avoid it?

[charmedbychickens]

I'm in the middle of my second hatch. I had a BCM seem to get stuck in it's shell. This morning was a full day since it had started to zip, so my DH and I decided to take it out and help it. The membrane was dried to it. Would spritzing it down with water have loosened it up? Or would the bacteria factor play too much of a part. We didn't keep it but I feel like maybe I should have helped it earlier and it would have been ok. Is my humidity to low or too high? It's been around 71% which from what I read is too high but I've got 10 others that have hatched out with no problems. Is this what others have referred to as having them shrink wrapped? I have about 4 other eggs that have pipped and I don't want the same thing to happen to them.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

When the membrane is stuck to it that is what we nicknamed shrink-wrapped. Spritzing would have helped. For future reference try raising the humidity a bit, or if one pips and it's a long time before it does anything else, this may be the cause, I usually spritz them to see if they will come on out. Incubating is trying to emulate nature, but it's still not nature at it's best...sorry for the loss.

SOOO many things can go wrong! I hope you have a better hatch experience with the rest!!

 

[bigdawg]

shrink wrap happens when humidity is to low, opening the bator during the hatch. what your using to check humidity may be way off. opening the bator during the hatch is the most common mistake made. it lets all the moisture out. and the chicks dry up and stick. spraying them lightly with warm water would be helpful if you do it quickly. i am no expert, but thats what i would do.

 

[charmedbychickens]

Ok- I'm running for the misting bottle. Thanks!

 

[MagsC]

Yep, you really need to TRY not to open the incubator during a hatch, sometimes it cant be helped and definitely easier said than done! I agree(from what I have read here) that this is probably the top reason for "shrink wrap".
Though I do kind of remember reading a post that there is no such thing as shrink wrapped?(its just sticking to the edges of my mind and I dont recall much about it.

)

 

[charmedbychickens]

Well I will tell you that when I filled up the troughs in the bottom of the bator, the humidity goes up to 75%. I already had both the plugs open and I was scared it was too high. So I cracked the lid the tineyest, tinyest bit which brought down perfectly to 65%. But I 'm thinking that was what did it and I might as well just run it how it was. I've never calibrated the humidity measurer thingy so I'll try that before my next hatch.


I've got a batch in another incubator (staggered hatch) that is ready to go into the incubator with the hatching chicks for lockdown today. I'll remove the hatched chicks and mist the incubator down before I close it back up again. Is there anything else I should do?