The experiment is over :-(

Yesterday I posted about my concerns over the condensation and humidity in the incubator. After doing some research and getting some advice, I very carefully removed junior from the incubator and cleaned out all of the water reservoirs to let him dry out a little. The lower humidity seemed to cause the temperature to stay higher and all night I struggled with keeping him at 100 degrees. I got up at 1:30am this morning to check on his temp and put the fan on in the kitchen to cool him off another half degree.

This morning I was making some more adjustments to keep the temp down and knocked into his egg. It rolled and hit the counter hard enough to crack his shell. I've seen crack repairs in my research--using nail polish and wax--and I was mentally ransacking my house for nail polish when I realized that blood was coming out of the crack. His membrane was ruptured and the crack extended all the way around the egg.

After standing there frozen for another second, I accepted that I had to let him go. Our experiment is over for the moment. I didn't take any pictures--or even de-shell him--because (and I know this sounds ridiculous--but I was too upset. I know it's just an egg, but aren't we all at some point?

I've already sent an email to see if any of junior's "siblings" are still available and hopefully our experiment will continue soon. In the meantime, I'm feeling both very sad and very stupid. :-(

UPDATE 2:50PM --> Three more eggs are on the way! They should be here by noon. My plan is to distract my daughter this evening and sneak the new eggs into the incubator tomorrow. This is going to seem like an usually long three weeks to her. ;-)