Give them time, at least another few days unless they are oozing or smell bad. (The proverbial rotten egg.) Temperature variations can affect how long they take to hatch. Some incubators have "hot spots" which could be why this one hatched ahead of the others.

Here's the link to that other thread for you. Hope chickie starts eating soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lone chick thread

I am a little scared I may have messed them up that's why I ask. I was not thinking and got eggs that are due to hatch on the 26 in the same incubator (only have 1) so I have to open it up to turn the other eggs. they say do not open it for anything and I have to open it 3 times a day. I am also a little scared it may be too humid in there for the newer eggs. I guess live and learn just hate to see the chicks suffer because I did not know what I was doing. do you think me opening it for about 45 seconds 3 times a day could cause them to not hatch? I do mist them each time to get the moisture back. like I said there is no noise coming from the eggs and I see no movement. but I know they are fertile and very well formed. also do you think I am hurting the newer eggs from the humidity? just not sure what to do. should I candle the newer eggs to see if they are still alive or leave them? it does not smell in there and they are not oozing anything. sorry for all the questions just very new to this

What kind of incubator do you have, and are you following the instructions for it by misting the eggs?

You know, since you added eggs and have to reach in to turn them, all you can do at this point is keep on with what you are doing and hope for the best--if nothing else, it's a learning experience. It's too late to change things now, so just forge ahead. After all, remember a mama hen comes off her eggs several times a day, right? Don't fret over it, just do your best with the situation you have. If the first batch doesn't hatch, maybe you'll have better luck with the second. :)

I always give my incubator eggs three days beyond the hatch date to allow any stragglers to hatch. I don't candle the eggs because if they are infertile or dead in the shell, there is nothing I can do about it anyway, and the less you handle the eggs, the better. Those last three days are the LONGEST days--! The temptation to open the incubator and check the babies is huge and very hard to resist.

Good luck with your hatch! :)

Velvet ~:>

I don't think you're supposed to mist chicken eggs. Duck eggs need the misting for humidity, plus, I think you're supposed to leave the incubator shut and not turn or mist at all during the last 3 days.

Our incubator has some water stored in the bottom of it which keeps the humidity at the proper level. Perhaps you could keep some water stored inside so you wouldn't have to open it all the time?

We had two different batches of eggs in the incubator and half of one batch hatched out at twenty and a half days. About a third of the other batch hatched out (they had been refrigerated somewhere along the line, but it was someone else's batch of eggs) on the twenty first day. That was about it, all the chicks hatched pretty close to each other although there was a difference between the two batches. I ran the incubator for two days afterwards, but no cheeping sounds, no new chicks so I called it quits.

I've noticed eggs in the fall don't seem to have as good a hatch rate as spring eggs. Maybe the hot summer days slow down the roosters?