Helping broody with staggered hatch?

[chameleon]

One of my bantam hens went broody, and I didn't notice immediately because she is completely black (comb and beak too) and when I did my daily headcount at bedtime I couldn't see her in the dark nest box. I assumed she was just gone because a caracal recently wiped out my landlord's flock.

The next day I saw her in the nest box, but I thought she might have just roosted somewhere else and come back to lay. I wasn't sure yet if she was broody. That night I checked more carefully and she was still in the nest box. By that time she could already have been sitting on the nest for almost 3 days and the other hens were still going in every day and laying their eggs under her.

I wan't to seperate a section of the run for her so that she's safer and the others can't lay in her nest, but I will only be able to do it on the weekend. That will mean that there will be about a week between the time she started setting and the last eggs were added to the nest. I have hatched with a broody before (her mother actually) so I know she'll wait on the nest a couple of days, but eventually get off, meaning there will still be some eggs 4 or 5 days away from hatching in the nest. I don't know which is which because I wasn't expecting her to go broody and didn't mark the eggs and I feel too bad to throw away eggs that have started to develop.

I don't have an incubator, but I do have the heating pad I used to brood some chicks a while ago. So I'm wondering if I could make a make-shift incubator with it to incubate any eggs that are left in the nest till they hatch. Then I could try giving them to the hen as they hatch, or if she rejects them I can brood them with the heating pad until I can sell them. I was busy scaling down my flock when she went broody.

 

[sourland]

Remove the chicks as soon as they hatch and brood them under the heating pad. This may extend the period that she will set, and once the last eggs are hatched you can return the chicks to her. Good luck - I hate staggered hatches.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Remove the chicks as soon as they hatch and brood them under the heating pad. This may extend the period that she will set, and once the last eggs are hatched you can return the chicks to her. Good luck - I hate staggered hatches.

X2... the heating pad will be more useful for brooding than hatching

 

[chameleon]

Remove the chicks as soon as they hatch and brood them under the heating pad. This may extend the period that she will set, and once the last eggs are hatched you can return the chicks to her. Good luck - I hate staggered hatches.

X2... the heating pad will be more useful for brooding than hatching

Thank you so much! I didn't think of that but it makes much more sense. And it would be so much easier, spring is just starting here and already the temperatures are soaring, the chicks wouldn't need much supplementary heat during the day anyway as temperatures aready reach around 90°F some days.

Just one question: Won't removing the chicks stress the hen too much? Could I do it at night or is it better to do it immediately as they hatch?