One out of eight hatched

[TheOneTrueJoe2]

We have eight Rhode Island Red eggs that were put into our incubator on the morning of Monday 10th November. It's now Monday 1st December and one of them has just hatched (yay!). It externally pipped in the morning and hatched in the early afternoon.

However, none of the others have externally pipped yet. I'm a little worried because one of them started rocking more than 48 hours ago on the morning of Saturday 29th. That one stopped rocking yesterday and hasn't started moving again since.

This is the first time we've had chickens/eggs, so we're learning as we go. We didn't know how to properly increase the humidity in the incubator, so for most of their incubation the eggs have been at around 55%. Only today did we finally work out how to increase it and now the humidity is sitting between 65-70%.


I have two questions:
If none of the other eggs hatch today, should I remove the chick that has? I've read that hatched chicks should be removed from the incubator after 5-6 hours.
Is there anything I can do to help the others at this point?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If none of the other eggs hatch today, should I remove the chick that has? I've read that hatched chicks should be removed from the incubator after 5-6 hours.

You can read anything. Some of it might be true.

Chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch. They can live off of the nutrients and moisture in that yolk for 72 hours or more. Nature set it up that way so the hen can stay on the nest and hatch the later chicks instead of having to take the first chicks off of the nest to look for food and water. I know of no scientific reason to take chicks out that early unless there is some obvious emergency. If there is a real emergency you need to deal with it. I do not consider "Oh, it is so cute, I have to cuddle it" to be a real emergency for me.

Is there anything I can do to help the others at this point?

This is part of the agony of hatching. You do not know what is going on inside that eggshell. Different people have different opinions.

Personally I leave them alone for as long as I can. I try to interfere as little as I can. If one has pipped and it has been over 24 hours I might consider helping, depending in what it looks like. But if I do help I am very careful to not tear blood vessels in the membrane around it if it still has blood. A chick has to develop to a certain point before it can hatch. Some just don't do that.

Others would be candling, poking holes in the shell, and who knows what else. It's what they do.

 

[TheOneTrueJoe2]

You can read anything. Some of it might be true.

Chicks absorb the yolk before they hatch. They can live off of the nutrients and moisture in that yolk for 72 hours or more. Nature set it up that way so the hen can stay on the nest and hatch the later chicks instead of having to take the first chicks off of the nest to look for food and water. I know of no scientific reason to take chicks out that early unless there is some obvious emergency. If there is a real emergency you need to deal with it. I do not consider "Oh, it is so cute, I have to cuddle it" to be a real emergency for me.


This is part of the agony of hatching. You do not know what is going on inside that eggshell. Different people have different opinions.

Personally I leave them alone for as long as I can. I try to interfere as little as I can. If one has pipped and it has been over 24 hours I might consider helping, depending in what it looks like. But if I do help I am very careful to not tear blood vessels in the membrane around it if it still has blood. A chick has to develop to a certain point before it can hatch. Some just don't do that.

Others would be candling, poking holes in the shell, and who knows what else. It's what they do.

Ok, thanks very much for the reassurance! I'll leave them be for now and assess tomorrow.

Any thoughts on the one that was rocking a couple of days ago and has since stopped moving?

Out of interest, do you know any adults who DO consider "Oh, it is so cute, I have to cuddle it" to be a real emergency?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any thoughts on the one that was rocking a couple of days ago and has since stopped moving?

That's hard. Some chicks can take a long time to hatch. They need to absorb the yolk, dry up blood vessels in the membrane surrounding them, and do other things before they hatch. Some do a lot of that before external pip, some do it before external pip. If that chick does hatch I'd expect it to zip shortly after pip.

Some chicks are just not meant to make it. For whatever reasons something is just wrong, a birth defect or something else. Helping won't matter. It may already be gone.

Some can be helped. Do a search in opening an air hole if you want to try.

Personally I do not help before they external pip. If they have trouble after external pip I might help, but I hesitate while the hatch is going in. I wait so I don't mess up the other ones hatching.

Out of interest, do you know any adults who DO consider "Oh, it is so cute, I have to cuddle it" to be a real emergency?

You are just trying to get me in trouble!

I do not know how old most of the people on this forum actually are so I cannot answer that.

 

[TheOneTrueJoe2]

I wait so I don't mess up the other ones hatching.

That sounds sensible. I'll leave them all be at least until tomorrow and see how things are looking then.

Thanks very much for your thoughts!