First chick hatched

[Jules1349]

So this is my first time and my eggs are all at different stages. My first chick hatched yesterday which I thought was only on day 17 and I thought it was a quitter. How do I know if the other chicks are coming? My hen stopped laying on her nest so I put them in the incubator but I didn’t see much movement it’s just really dark but no veins. The one that hatched I thought was dead because I didn’t see veins. How long should I wait before removing quitters ?

 

[lutherpug]

You shouldn't see much in the last few days as the chicks are taking up almost all of the available room in the egg. It is almost all dark, except for the air sac. Given that you don't know how old the eggs are but candling indicates they are mostly done, I might give it 3-5 days in an incubator under lock down conditions.

ETA: Lockdown conditions mean no opening the brooder, no candling, high humidity (60-65%) You can't control what happened when the broody got off the nest but you can control the conditions from this point on in your incubator. You will do more harm than good at this point by opening and closing the incubator and candling. The humidity needs to stay high in order to have good hatches. Speaking from experience.

 

[lily7grace92]

When the eggs are close to hatching (day 18-21) you normally don't see veins very clearly anymore and it will turn really dark. Most people wait until day 26 before giving up on any eggs because they can sometimes take a few extra days. I would wait and not panic. Your eggs are most likely okay, but it's hard to say without pictures
Hoping that the rest of your eggs hatch!