Need Help with hatching!!!

[H Family]

Please help! I'm new at incubating and hatching eggs. I wasn't intending to incubate. I had a hen sitting on 10 eggs and one hatched 2 days ago and is doing well, but she abandoned the rest of her eggs and was only attending to the one chick. I left the eggs for awhile, tried seeing if she would sit on them when she went back into the nest for the night, but she's not interested. The eggs were somewhat cold. I went to the local farm store and bought the only incubator they had as it was close to closing time. It's not the best incubator, but it's what I was able to get at the time. I don't know all of the proper terms, so be kind, please. One of the eggs was externally pipped? - the shell was completely broken through in a spot, this was a little more than 24 hours ago. I had them in the incubator throughout the night & today. Honestly, I didn't think they would make it, but this evening, I was trying to candle them (they are dark eggs) & the one that has pipped was peeping a little bit and some other eggs were peeping and moving. I put them back in the incubator quickly, but I'm not sure what to do now. Today is day 21. Will there be issues now that I moved them? What position do they need to be in (they are on their sides, but I have no idea about air sacs & such as I didn't want to keep them out of the incubator to check). And when would the chick that has pipped need assistance? I plan on getting a better incubator tomorrow, but I have no idea what I'm doing! Any advice would be so appreciated! Thanks so much.

 

[Debbie292d]

A chick that's pipped can take up to 24 hours to hatch, but usually it's under 12.

Humidity for them the 18th day to the 21st etc. day needs to be around 70%. If you don't have a thermometer/hygrometer yet, might need to buy one. I got a few of them from Amazon.

Once they've pipped, the incubator shouldn't be opened as the drastic drop in humidity can cause them to become shrink-wrapped, and then you'd have to help them out.

Here's an article on how to help:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

Welcome to BYC!!

Oh, and by the way, you do not have to ask people to be nice in this forum as everyone is nice here unlike Facebook where there are nice folks but some pretty arrogant ones who think they know everything or tell people off. We don't do that here.

 

[H Family]

Thank you so very much for your help and advice. I did read the article, however, since this chick has already pecked a small amount of shell off, should I start there or still start assisting by poking the hole in the air cell and peeling the shell there? Also, if it's been over 24 hours since any progress has been made, should I still attempt this?
Thank you again and good to know there are some nice people out there!