Day 22 / 4 dead chicks / 7 eggs left

[ChickensAndChai]

Quick summary:
Bought hatching eggs for my broody hen. She has diligently been sitting for 22 days now on 10 eggs. Day 20, got 3 dead chicks out of 2 eggs. (What?!) Today found another dead chick still half inside its shell. It appeared to be fully developed with feathers. 7 eggs remain. I do not have a candler.

My question is: Should I move the remaining eggs to the incubator for the hatch (if it even happens?) I came home from work and the chicks were all under her but dead. I'm worried that because this is her first time she is squishing them. It is a new incubator, never used and the eggs are dirty from an egg eater mess (we got rid of her early on in the sitting stage). They remained unwashed.

Thanks, in advance!
(This is way more stressful than I imagined. I just want her to be successful.)

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!

Broody chickens are stressful! And so are egg-eaters! I've experienced both.

I'm sorry about your chicks.

If she is a heavy breed then she could be hurting them, but otherwise first time mothers tend to do a good job.
If she can't cover all the eggs they might be getting a little cold, an incubator could help with this. The broken egg on them could have caused a problem, but I don't see why they would die after they hatched instead of before.

Sometimes disease can be passed through mothers into eggs and the chicks inside of eggs upon being laid. Their mother (biological) may not have had enough nutrition when she laid or may have had a genetic problem.

Sometimes, chicks get so weak after hatching that they die afterwards. I have had chicks that were partially hatched that died while breaking out. They were just too weak. This is how, in the wild, the weak are weeded out. Its not fun though. I try to help chicks, even if they wouldn't have made it in the wild.

I would suggest taking some of the eggs and incubating them and leaving some of them with the mother, so that if one doesn't work, there is a chance with the other.


I hope everything works out in the end. Hang in there, it does get easier.

 

[jafo]

Quick summary:
Bought hatching eggs for my broody hen. She has diligently been sitting for 22 days now on 10 eggs. Day 20, got 3 dead chicks out of 2 eggs. (What?!) Today found another dead chick still half inside its shell. It appeared to be fully developed with feathers. 7 eggs remain. I do not have a candler.

My question is: Should I move the remaining eggs to the incubator for the hatch (if it even happens?) I came home from work and the chicks were all under her but dead. I'm worried that because this is her first time she is squishing them. It is a new incubator, never used and the eggs are dirty from an egg eater mess (we got rid of her early on in the sitting stage). They remained unwashed.

Thanks, in advance!
(This is way more stressful than I imagined. I just want her to be successful.)

I do not have a candler.
Everybody has a flashlight,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,don't they ???