Stay calm!! :) Trust in Mother Nature.

I leave the first chicks to hatch in the bator until they are completely dry and fluffed out, which could be up to 6 or 12 hours. The more you open the bator the more heat and humidity you are letting out, so only open it when necessary. I am also of the opinion that the hatched chicks stumbling around and jostling the pipping eggs, peeping loudly, encourages the other eggs to hatch. Therefore I always leave the most recently hatched chick in the bator as a sort of cheerleader. :) You'll also know when it's time to remove a chick to the brooder box when it starts getting a little too rough on the emerging chicks, standing on their heads, things like that. If you click on my 'My Page' link there is tons of chicken info there that may help you.

Breathe deep and relax! We're with ya! Try to enjoy the moment! Congrats on the fuzzies! :)

Velvet

We need an update on the babies! :)

Sorry. Didn't have time to post this morning. One is hatched and sooo cute. One is out but still has shell stuck all over him. One didn't make it. Started breaking the shell and stopped.No activity there all day.The other ones have not started doing anything yet. What I cant figure out is they aren't due till sunday. I still had the turner in. Was gonna take it out this morning, But I had to open and remove it last night. I hadn't even thought of that when I posted I was so excited!Why did these 3 come so early. I wrote the date on the calender.I hope the others will be OK. And by the way, did I mention how noisy they are. My bator is in my front room with me of course!My DH keeps turning up the TV. Thanks for the help all, Will keep updating, Gladys

You may want to take a clean wet sponge and slip it into the incubator to raise the humidity. It sounds as if the humidity is low. Thats why the shell is sticking to the chick. Have fun!!!

Sometimes chicks can take loooong breaks between pipping and breaking out of the shell, so unless you are sure it is dead don't lose hope. :)

There can be many causes of an early hatch, if you do an Internet search on it or look at your incubator instructions there should be a table with the most common egg hatching issues.

Enjoy! :)

I have 1 more chick this morning! I just can't figure this out. I gathered all these eggs the same day myself and I pretty sure they are all fertile. Maybe the others will catch up soon or else how will I know when to give up? Gladys