HELP! HELP! Chick might hatch before others! D:

[ChickenPeep]

Im freaking out right now!!
I have an egg that is 2 days older than the rest. While the other's hatch date is the 21st, this one's is the 19th.
When we started incubating, we olny had this one egg. 2 days later we added 17 eggs and a large incubator (we have since thrown out 2). I didnt think this one had a chance of hatching. This was because, in the small incubator that it was i before, the temp spiked to 109 and 115!!! I thought the high temps killed it. But, i later found out it was growing!!

I just candled today (day 14 for the others, but day 16 for this one) and the egg was completely black, which means it is fully grown. I was thinking that maybe, the high temps spiked it's growth instead of killing it.
If this is true, im thinking the chick could hatch any day now! I was originally going to put them on lockdown at the same time, but now i dont know what to do!! If it starts hatching before the others, i wont be able to turn the others!! I dont know what to do!! Im panicing!! HELP!! WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!?!?!

EDIT: I have an 1 that was set on the 28th, 10 that were set on the 30th, and 5 eggs that were set on the 1st. So, should i lockdown on the 17th? That would be 1 day after the oldest one's time, 1 day before the majority's time, and 2 days before the other's time.

 

[Impress]

Watch it closely, as soon as you see an external pip, lock down and raise the humidity. Or lock down now, it isn't too early as long as you have kept the humidity down enough for those eggs to have lost enough moisture.

 

[Arielle]

I'm sure all will be fine. THe higher temp can speed up the process but not by much. ANd the high temp was only for a short time. Most of the time it was the same temp as the second group. Can you stop turning it as regularly scheduled for that egg?

 

[ChickenPeep]

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What about the other eggs?

 

[ChickenPeep]

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Why?

 

[Impress]

The chick needs to position itself to hatch, and it can't do that if it is flipping and flopping back and forth constantly. Candle the other eggs and check their air cells, if they have good sized egg cells, go ahead and lock down, 2-3 days isn't much of a difference. I personally would check it every hour or so and lock down once I saw that first little external pip. But I would stop turning that one egg so it can get ready to hatch.

 

[ChickenPeep]

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They all have big air cells. If i did it today, they would be 4 days early. Actually, for a few, it would be 5 days early! Should i wait for tomorrow?

 

[CarolJ]

I had a staggered hatch a few weeks ago - two days between the two sets of eggs. I split the difference and did lock-down one day late for the first set - which was one day early for the second set. I had a great hatch rate. I ended up having eggs hatch for five days - with some early and some late. It all worked out. As soon as chicks were dried and fluffy, I would quickly remove them from the incubator and straight into the waiting brooder - and the rest of the eggs in the incubator hatched when they were ready. Just have the brooder ready and nice and warm. Each time I removed chicks, I only opened the incubator enough to slip my arm in, grab a chick - and then immediately closed it again - mere seconds. The temp and humidity stayed constant. That worked for me. However, next time I intend to start all the eggs at the same time - just to cut down on the anxiety that having a staggered hatch caused me. Good luck.

Edited to add: I started lockdown on a Saturday morning - and one of the eggs didn't hatch till the following Thursday! I had figured it wasn't going to hatch, but kept the incubator going anyway - just in case. And after five days of lockdown - a perfect little Welsummer hatched. On the other hand - the first ones hatched on that Saturday evening - less than 12 hours after lockdown started. So "lockdown" isn't an exact science!

 

[ih66series]

Is one egg really worth risking the other 17?

 

[ChickenPeep]

Ok, so. I have an 1 that was set on the 28th, 10 that were set on the 30th, and 5 eggs that were set on the 1st. So, should i lockdown on the 17th? That would be 1 day after the oldest one's time, 1 day before the majority's time, and 2 days before the other's time.