please help - should we give water to new chicks without food?

[Rehoboth]

This is our first time hatching eggs. We bought some random eggs and put them under a broody hen. 21 days was supposed to be Sunday, and I was going to buy chick feed tomorrow. But the eggs have started hatching. If I don't have feed until tomorrow morning, should I give the chicks water for the night, or not? We're in SW PA, temps in low 70s overnight, back up to 90 tomorrow.

And not urgently - 2 days ago another hen got in the nest and cracked an egg. For future reference, is there anything I can do to save a cracked egg which is only a few days from hatching?

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

Chicks don't need either food or water for the first couple of days after hatching because they are still getting nutrients from the yolk they absorbed. You can offer them water if you want to; they will definitely be fine without feed for a day if they have just hatched.

 

[Rehoboth]

Thanks! We were wondering why they hatched so much sooner than we were expecting, on day 19. Would the hot temperatures - highs in the 90s for half of their incubation - have caused them to hatch faster?

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

Thanks! We were wondering why they hatched so much sooner than we were expecting, on day 19. Would the hot temperatures - highs in the 90s for half of their incubation - have caused them to hatch faster?

That sounds likely to me. I've only used an incubator so far and almost every egg I incubate hatches a day or two early even though I've experimented with different temperatures . It's in the high 90s or low 100s here lately too. But I've heard the rule of thumb is that early means the temperature was a little high and late means it was a little low.

I haven't had any experience with an egg cracking before hatch, so hopefully someone has some tips on that one for you and it makes it