Since my last post another one has hatched and it was not shrinkwrapped. I have one more left to hatch, it's pipped and I'm expecting to it hatch either overnight or tomorrow morning. The shrinkwrapped chick is doing fine now, very active.
I wonder if something might've been bothering her while it was hatching. For the shrinkwrapped egg, it pipped sometime overnight and I checked underneath her around 6 in the morning and saw it pipped so I let her sit back down. After that I went to school, so I don't know if something happened between then and when I got back from school and found it shrinkwrapped. She is seperated from the rest of the flock, but someone might of been harassing her through the wire. It wouldn't surprise me.
The second chick that hatched I will admit I did not follow proper percautions with. Ashamedly, I probably checked on that once 7 or 8 times after it pipped. I was very anxious about it being shrinkwrapped and dying so I was checking once an hour. That one hatched just fine luckily, but my impatience definently did not help anything.
Today I bought 2 more chicks (both day old black sex links) and put them under the hen, so now she has four chicks under her and one egg thats pipped. The chicks are starting to get restless and have been adventuring out from under the hen, so she has been lifting herself up to let them in and out a lot. Would that affect the egg when it's hatching? I have an incubator up and running as a failsafe, would it be better if I moved the egg to the incubator with 70% humidity until it hatches and then just move it back under the hen? My hen easily accepted the two sex links I got for her no questions asked, even though it was during the day and she saw me carry them into the coop. She saw the chicks and started clucking for them to get under her. I don't really want to put the egg into the incubator, but if it hasn't hatched by tomorrow morning should I? Or should I just check periodically tomorrow to make sure everything is okay? I have already been checking on her periodically and would prefer to keep the egg under her, but I also don't want it to die.