New to incubating egg

[MisfitRanch3]

I am super new to the whole raising chicken thing and brand new to incubating my own eggs.

So I gathered 4 eggs about 23 days ago. Today is 22 (according to my Amazon incubator), at some point, while I was at work, finally I had one hatch and she was dry by the time I got home.

I know it can take longer than 21 days for some to hatch. But my question is what do I do with this lonely chick? She seems so scared and peeps all the time and I can’t get her to eat or drink

 

[horselover1999]

Are the other eggs pipped at all? Any signs of life? If nobody else is pipped, you could candle the other 3 to see if there's any internal pips.
If there aren't any signs of life, you could use a mirror or a stuffed animal to keep it company until something happens.

 

[MisfitRanch3]

No pipping that I can see from outside the incubator. If I candle what would it look like? Because when I candled at 15-17 days I couldn’t see anything.

I will definitely try the mirror and small stuffed animal

 

[horselover1999]

This is an internal pip. You can see a beak protruding into the air cell. They should externally pip within 24 hours of their internal pip.

 

[MisfitRanch3]

Is it safe to candle at 22 days old or should I wait?

From the picture it looks like an external pip?

 

[horselover1999]

Is it safe to candle at 22 days old or should I wait?

From the picture it looks like an external pip?

If you don’t want to candle you could wait a few days to see what happens.
You can see an external pip without candling. An external pip is when they first open the shell a bit.
I have candled eggs with internal pips and almost every time I pick one up it would peep at me.

 

[Slothinc]

I would go ahead and candle now. Since none of them have externally pipped, you don’t have to worry too much about taking them out to candle. Look to see if you can see a beak or head in the air cell like in the photo that @horselover1999 posted. If you don’t see that, look for any signs of movement.

 

[Ridgerunner]

my question is what do I do with this lonely chick? She seems so
scared and peeps all the time and I can’t get her to eat or drink

What date did you set those eggs? I've seen machines mis-programmed before. You are correct, they can hatch early or late but it would be interesting to know how long they have actually been in there.

Don't worry too much about the chick eating or drinking yet. Before they hatch they absorb the yolk. Typically they can go for over 72 hours before they need to eat or drink. It doesn't hurt them to eat or drink, but it doesn't hurt them to wait.

The constant peeping is more of a concern. She is lonely. Putting a mirror in there so it can see its reflection is a great idea. You can put a small stuffed animal in there too for it to cuddle with.

If no others hatch I'd pick up a few baby chicks to raise with it. A single chick can be a problem.

Good luck!