Pipping early!

[Themason4]

Help! This is my first incubation. I’m not going to be home today or tomorrow so I took the eggs from the turner last night and added more water to raise humidity (day 17). This morning I checked on them before leaving and one is pipping and chirping. What do I do? If anything? If/when it hatches, do I leave it until day 21?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Help! This is my first incubation. I’m not going to be home today or tomorrow so I took the eggs from the turner last night and added more water to raise humidity (day 17). This morning I checked on them before leaving and one is pipping and chirping. What do I do? If anything? If/when it hatches, do I leave it until day 21?

Leave it be to hatch, but do not leave it in the incubator until day 21. It should hatch in the next 24 hours and three days is too long for a chick to be in the incubator. A chick can live off of the absorbed yolk for 24-48 hours. I don’t like to leave them in the incubator longer than 24.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Actually they can live on the yolk for over 72 hours from hatch. Postal regulations for mailing them are based on 72 hours. There is a reason they are based on 72 hours. They have to be mailed within 24 hours of hatch. There has to be a reasonable expectation that they will be delivered with 48 hours. 24 + 48 = 72.

That chick and any others that hatch will be fine until you get back but don't leave it in there over 72 hours. There are different reasons the eggs can hatch way early like that. One very likely one is that your incubation temperature is too warm. Especially if your other eggs hatch early you might want to check your incubation temperature with a calibrated thermometer. Thermometers are notorious for not reading correctly, including ones that come with the incubator.