I had a broody hen sitting on 9 eggs. I'm not sure what happened (maybe our heat wave) but she got off the eggs on day 6.
She may have been off them for as long as 24 hrs but the temperature in the coop was @85f. Unfortunately she also pooped on them but I decided to give them a chance. I scrambled to find an incubator - went out in my pj's to borrow one. I have little experience with them and found I had issues with high humidity that took a couple of days to sort out.
The eggs seem to be doing ok until day 14 when we had a 7 hr power outage - I wrapped the incubator to keep in the heat (temp dropped to @80f). Then a miracle: one of my hens went broody so I transferred the eggs to her. She has sat on them for a further 9 days.
Two healthy chicks hatched yesterday on day 25. I found one today (day 26) shrink wrapped in the egg and knew it would die without assistance. I moistened the membrane and made sure I didn't see any blood vessels. I slowly peeled off the outer shell but there were bits of membrane and shell stuck to the chick so I figured I'd have to remove all the shell and membrane if the chick was to survive. I managed to do all that and the chick seems fine. It is vocal and it seems quite strong.
I popped it under the mother for a couple of hours and when I went to check on it I saw that it has curled toes. I've googled how to remedy them. When do I put the shoes on? (The chick hatched 2 hrs ago) and do I leave it with the hen? I don't really have another place to put it but I don't want the hen to reject it either. Suggestions?
Here are some photos - sorry for the bad close ups but I was doing everything with one hand.
She may have been off them for as long as 24 hrs but the temperature in the coop was @85f. Unfortunately she also pooped on them but I decided to give them a chance. I scrambled to find an incubator - went out in my pj's to borrow one. I have little experience with them and found I had issues with high humidity that took a couple of days to sort out.
The eggs seem to be doing ok until day 14 when we had a 7 hr power outage - I wrapped the incubator to keep in the heat (temp dropped to @80f). Then a miracle: one of my hens went broody so I transferred the eggs to her. She has sat on them for a further 9 days.
Two healthy chicks hatched yesterday on day 25. I found one today (day 26) shrink wrapped in the egg and knew it would die without assistance. I moistened the membrane and made sure I didn't see any blood vessels. I slowly peeled off the outer shell but there were bits of membrane and shell stuck to the chick so I figured I'd have to remove all the shell and membrane if the chick was to survive. I managed to do all that and the chick seems fine. It is vocal and it seems quite strong.
I popped it under the mother for a couple of hours and when I went to check on it I saw that it has curled toes. I've googled how to remedy them. When do I put the shoes on? (The chick hatched 2 hrs ago) and do I leave it with the hen? I don't really have another place to put it but I don't want the hen to reject it either. Suggestions?
Here are some photos - sorry for the bad close ups but I was doing everything with one hand.
