From Broody to Incubator - temperature question

[Khavilah]

I have three broody hens. One first-timer (Beyoncegg) had ten eggs; five hatched over four or five days and she left the nest with those chicks. There were five eggs left. There was one egg already pipped that had gotten a little cold and dry before I noticed it, so it needed some help out of the shell but it is back with the mama hen and she's looking after it just fine with the others. (Thank you BYC for the great threads about helping a chick out.) I put the rest of the eggs she left under one of my other hens because I wasn't able to candle them and I was kind of panicked about losing any more chicks this late in the game.

The two other broodys have more eggs than Beyoncegg. I'm worried that they'll be leaving a bunch of eggs when they bring their own chicks away from the nest (one is out already today under Chickie so it's starting). Some of the eggs are likely a week older than the first hatching eggs because, of course, the two hens left picked the most prime nesting boxes that everybody wants to lay in. I'd marked the eggs they had two weeks ago and was pulling the new ones out daily, but then I had an accident where ... uh ... well, let's say I'm not cooking eggs willingly anytime soon but I can't give them away. I swear I marked them all. Anyway.

If the incubator is set up to potentially take the eggs that the hens leave in the nest, is the regular 100 degree range acceptable for late-stage eggs? I've looked but couldn't find anything about eggs switched from under a hen this late in the game. I would certainly candle them before I put them in so I don't get rotten ones later, but this is my first time with an incubator and my first time successfully hatching eggs under a broody (predators last year ruined that run), and I just want to make sure I don't unintentionally kill a whole bunch of chicks in the eggs. I already did that with the one egg mentioned in that accident. *shudder*

 

[Khavilah]

Started up the incubator last night. It's reached an even 100 degrees as of this morning. I'm not sure if I'll need to use the egg-turner, though, but I'll move them around by myself if necessary.

Also, we started yesterday morning with eight chicks, lost one to drowning (I have since removed that water source and supplied them with a much safer one), found my other hen hatched out six more while I wasn't looking. So we're up to 13. So far so good.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Started up the incubator last night. It's reached an even 100 degrees as of this morning. I'm not sure if I'll need to use the egg-turner, though, but I'll move them around by myself if necessary.

Also, we started yesterday morning with eight chicks, lost one to drowning (I have since removed that water source and supplied them with a much safer one), found my other hen hatched out six more while I wasn't looking. So we're up to 13. So far so good.

If it's a still air generally temps should be 101-102, but a degree lower at hatch time is fine. You don't need to turn them as long as they are all past 2 weeks gestation. The humidity should be up at least 65%, for hatch, if you are going to be opening the bator at any point during hatching, I would suggest 75%

 

[Khavilah]

If it's a still air generally temps should be 101-102, but a degree lower at hatch time is fine. You don't need to turn them as long as they are all past 2 weeks gestation. The humidity should be up at least 65%, for hatch, if you are going to be opening the bator at any point during hatching, I would suggest 75%

Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I'm so nervous that I doubt the stuff I read on my own as in "oh shoot, what if I misread and I have the wrong temp and these all die?" First time new-chick mama here. Nervous as heck.

Chickie got off her nest today and left six eggs. I candled all of them and two of the originally marked ones were empty. I gave one of them to my youngest to go throw away and he came running back and said, "Mommy! The chick melted!!" He had shaken it and felt the swoosh-swoosh of regular egg.

We have four in the incubator and mama hen has eight or nine chicks to herself now. My other hen, who's still sitting, hatched one but Chickie kind of absorbed it into her family. Now all the chicks are going between the two and keeping warm under the last broody and running around with Chickie. I had no idea they would do that.

A fun surprise is seeing which baby grows up to be the one from the bantam egg I slipped under Chickie last month.

More fun is when my last broody (I can't tell if this one is Puffy or Buffy because they were both almost identical except when standing right next to each other) gets up and we see how many of the, oh, 15-20 eggs that are now under her are hatched and / or viable. Next time I will be more prepared for this kind of thing and have a separate broody-house so nobody else lays eggs in their nests.

I do have homes for all these chicks already, though, so that's not a big worry.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I'm so nervous that I doubt the stuff I read on my own as in "oh shoot, what if I misread and I have the wrong temp and these all die?" First time new-chick mama here. Nervous as heck.

Chickie got off her nest today and left six eggs. I candled all of them and two of the originally marked ones were empty. I gave one of them to my youngest to go throw away and he came running back and said, "Mommy! The chick melted!!" He had shaken it and felt the swoosh-swoosh of regular egg.

We have four in the incubator and mama hen has eight or nine chicks to herself now. My other hen, who's still sitting, hatched one but Chickie kind of absorbed it into her family. Now all the chicks are going between the two and keeping warm under the last broody and running around with Chickie. I had no idea they would do that.

A fun surprise is seeing which baby grows up to be the one from the bantam egg I slipped under Chickie last month.

More fun is when my last broody (I can't tell if this one is Puffy or Buffy because they were both almost identical except when standing right next to each other) gets up and we see how many of the, oh, 15-20 eggs that are now under her are hatched and / or viable. Next time I will be more prepared for this kind of thing and have a separate broody-house so nobody else lays eggs in their nests.

I do have homes for all these chicks already, though, so that's not a big worry.

You're welcome. That's great that you already have placement. I have not delt with broody hens yet, though I expect to since I now have 4 silkies and they are known for broodiness....lol

 

[Khavilah]

Well, we had a bit of an issue today. Buffy was off the clutch of eggs and was setting in another shallow nest with one or two chicks under her. The eggs were cold like she hadn't been there for a while. I took all of them and candled them and put ten of them into the incubator.

I wonder why she left the nest. Maybe she was too close to my other chicken and felt threatened by her being up and about with the other chicks. I am learning so much about what I need to do next time this happens. Man.

And so now I have 13 or 14 eggs in the incubator (I need to recount; was worried about losing the heat while putting them in), all with good-sized air sacs and dark masses for the rest of the egg. Temp is 99-101-ish with a humidity ranging from 60-80ish.

I hope them getting cold for however long they were cold didn't kill them.

 

[Khavilah]

I hear peeping from the incubator! No eggs pipped yet, though, but yay! I'll keep staring at them until they do!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I hear peeping from the incubator! No eggs pipped yet, though, but yay! I'll keep staring at them until they do!

 

[Khavilah]

 

[Khavilah]

I think I will try to slip this one under a hen tonight. I really would rather the hens raise them outside instead of me hand-raising them inside. Even if no others hatch, I am happy for saving one.