The other incubator was cleaned and disinfected, and set to hatching, which mainly means much higher humidity. Humidity is important when hatching: the membrane surrounding the chick needs to be moist, other wise the chick will bocme 'shrink wrapped' and uable to get out.
Before transferring the eggs for their final 2 days, we candled them. One was clear (unfertilised) - the last Dorking egg, sadly - which left us with 6.
I'm not sure I can rember the sequence of events.
ThursdayChick 1 chick hatched on Thursday. No other chicks emerged, and we were concerned we might have a lone chick. After 12 hours, we moved him into the brooder. Small Person popped over to see.
Friday
On Friday morning, nothing was happening at 6am, but at 8am when I went to look, we had a chick. And another one on the way.
Small Person was away fishing with her Dad. I phoned her Dad and arranged to meet them so that small person could see the hatch. We got back just in time to see chick 2 emerging.
Two more had pipped, possibly 3 - although the 3rd one looked like it might have been pecked from the outside. Small person stayed to see what happened. She popped out with DH and chick 3 hatched while she was out. Honestly. You couldn't make it up. I tried to video it for her.
Nothing else was happening with the others so after some hours I took Small Person back to her Dad.
Later on Friday, I could see that we were going to have a timing problem. I decided to pop the Chicks 2 and 3 in the brooder, with the original chick, before the next chick emerged. I also took the opportunity to take out the shells.
Chick 1, who has black legs and feet, was shocked to have 2 newbies in with him. He was also fascinated by their pink toes and kept going for them. I presume he thought they were worms. He would not let the newhatched chicks rest, so I had to take them back out and put them back in the incubator.
Chick 4 hatched. I was really conscious of the timing problem now. I had 2 dry chicks, 1 wet chick, and another one on the way. Once number 5 arrived, I woudln't be able to open the incubator until he was dry, and by that point number 2 would need food and water and number 3 would need water. . So, much later, when number 4 was dry, I removed number 2 and 3 and put them in the brooder. The same thing happened with the feet fetish, but I couldn't do anything about it now.
Number 5 was well pipped and had a fairly big hole. I realised that the membrane was probably too dry, probably because I'd opened the incubator a few times. Damn Damn Damn Damn. I was going to have to intervene (as I had caused the problem).
I boiled some water, soaked a new dishcloth in it, then took the egg out of the incubator and wrapped it in the warm cloth. I soaked some kitchen towel, and attempted to drip water on to the cracked edges and on to the membrane. I had to make sure I didn't get water near the beak or nostrils, I resoaked the cloth as it cooled down. I could hear the chick inside the egg cheeping.
I put the egg back, and picked up the small 6th egg. No sound. I put it back.
Several times over the rest of the evening, I used hot boiled water and went through the process with number 5. I was sure the chick was going to die, and it would be my fault.
It was not an easy night.
Saturday
On Saturday morning, number 5 had emerged. I was so relieved.
So we had just one egg left in the Incubator. It had pipped but hadn't got any further. We weren't even sure it had pipped, it was possible it had been a peck from the first or second chick. Then I saw it had cracked a bit and there was a small hole. I heard it cheep.
If number 5 made me think Damn Damn Damn, you can imagine what I was thinking about number 6.
This poor chick. All the faffing about with Number 5, all the times I'd opened the incbator, the damage might be irreperable. I had assumed it was dead in shell, and I hadn't done anything to keep it damp.
I had to try and do something now. I tried the soaking thing, but I couldn't risk dripping water because the hole was too mall. I got a brand new artist brush, put that in boiling water, and tried using that to dampen the edges. I even chipped away some shell and soaked the membrane.
I could see the little beak trying to poke out. It cheeped.
I picked up Small Person at 2pm and brought her back. During the afternoon, I tried again a couple of times. Each time I tried, I was wishing I hadn't, and simultaneously wondering about doing more. I used the brush to get some membrane off its beak and part of its body. It's very easy to break a blood vessel when interfering like this. So many things can go wrong.
Every time we opened the incubator, 4 and 5 would try to hop out. Later in the afternoon we decided we'd have to get the other chicks out. I wrapped the Number 6 egg in a wet cloth, Small Person moved 4 and 5 into the brooder, took out the shells, and put fresh kitchen towel down.
Several times I used my brush, desperately trying to help the poor thing. If it really had pipped on Thursday, it had taken far too long. At some point DH had also had a surreptitious attempt at 'helping' by breaking off some shell. It was so stressful.
Much later, it was desperately trying to break free. I looked at the shell and could see that our 'helping' had probably made it harder for the little thing to get the leverage it needed. I walked away. They have to push out of the shell to strengthem their legs, otherwaise you get "splayed leg" and various other deformoties.
I came back and watched for a bit. I walked away.
Eventually, I had to wrap it up again and help the shell a bit.
Eventually, it hatched.
It still had it's yolk sac attached. That's not good. They need to have absorbed all the yolk before they emerge. I googled. I struggled not to cry. The outlook was not good. It might ot survive more than a few hours. It might survive but it could be susceptible to disease, some of them so horrible they don't bear thinking about ("mushy chick"). It mght ie within a day or two. It might carry a disease and infect the other chicks. It might survive and die young.
It was done now. We had to leave it alone, not open the incubator at all in case infection got in.
I struggled not to cry. Small Person kept asking if it was going to be all right. We answered honestly. We don't know. We just have to wait and see what happens.
No matter what happens, we cannot open the incubator.
