I had a clutch of eggs that were abandoned by a broody the day before they were supposed to hatch. I made a make shift hatcher out of some tin foil, a styrafoam cooler and a dish of water. In theory it sounded like it should have worked just fine, but there wasn't enough humidity, so all of the chicks ended up shrink wrapped. I used a pair of tweezers and slowly and carefully picked the shell off the eggs, trying to leave as much membrane as possible. I left most of the bottom half of the shell intact as well (so as not to pull the umbilical cord from it). Then I used damp paper towels to wet the membranes a little and the chicks just sort of cut themselves from the membrane. A couple of them ran around the brooder for a day or so with the bottom halves of their eggs shells stuck to their tushies, but eventually those dried and fell off leaving normal fluffy chicks. I try not to help the chicks *unless* its some emergency or error caused by me. Good luck.
