I have some babies!!... But not all...

First time hatcher and having a ball!! I placed 12 eggs in my genesis 1588 and things looked great all the way through (as far as I knew) with candling. I think one quit between 14 and 18 days but still put it in lockdown. My questions is: 8 babies popped on day 20 (between morning and night) and 1 more on the 21st morning. The other 3 (the one I think is a no go) are still in there. My questions is, how long do I leave the little buggers in there before moving them to the brooder? I have been good so far and have not opened it one single time since lockdown. The problem is that one remaining egg has a pip and I have read enough from you guys to know that now would be very bad for that little guy if I opened it to move them, but won't I be starving the other guys by tomorrow morning (48 hours)? The pip showed up the morning of the 21st day and hasn't progressed in 12 hours. How long do I wait and hold out hope before my others are demanding chow? I'm sorry this is confusing, but I'm just so darn excited and loving life! My happy place is next to an incubator. Thank you!!

Julie

I usually leave hatched chicks in the incubator until they are almost completely dry/fluffy. Then, even if there are still other eggs that are pipping, I remove the already hatched chicks and put them in the brooder. True, the humidity does drop, but with all of the hatching (moist chicks, wet empty egg shells, extra lockdown water, etc.), it quickly rises again. I've never had a problem with chicks getting dried to the shell and having a difficult time hatching just because I opened the incubator a few times to remove chicks.

Chicks can survive on the remains of their yolk sac for up to three days. However, the sooner they begin eating and drinking, the better.

As for the eggs that haven't hatched yet, I would leave them in the incubator until at least the end of day 22. Late hatchers are not uncommon, especially if the humidity or temperature were slightly off in the incubation. If you still see nothing in any of the unhatched eggs, then I would candle them, check for movement, and then carefully crack them open to see what happened.

Congratulations on your chicks, and good luck with the rest of the hatch!

I take mine out as well. Once they are up and really active and nice and warm I move them to the brooder. I keep my humidity up there (75%+) for lockdown and hatch so I don't worry to much about loosing a couple %.

Technically a chick can stay in the bator 3 days, but I personally would never do it that way.

When I think they are done hatching I candle and I hold the egg up to my ear and tap the air cell end to see if I here chirps or taps back. If nothing, I put a small hole in the air cell so I can get my little finger or the tip of my finger in there and check for movement under the membrane that way if it's still alive I can put it back w/o totally compromising the chick andgive it more time. If I don't get any movement then I proceed to do the eggtopsy.
Good luck and congrats!