Staggard Egg Clutch - Help desperately needed

[Feather queen]

Hi all,
I have just come back to a number of my very unreliable hens gone broody and the coop environment isn't safe for chick's at the moment. Most eggs are already over half way formed to ready to hatch any day (1 hatched this morning, it's currently in my incubator to keep it safe and warm).
I am soon going to take all eggs out from under the hens and place them in my incubator but I need to know what temperature and humidity I should keep my incubator at to accommodate all the different stages the eggs are at and not cause complications hatching.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Debbie292d]

Could you take the hen and put her and her nest and eggs/chicks in a pen? It's so much easier to let the mom raise them. Usually, they defend them against the rest of the flock, and the rest of the flock eventually respects the mom and her clutch and keeps away from them.

If that's not an option, your incubator should be at 99.5F / 37.5C and humidity 70% if they're soon to hatch in a few days.

The chick will be fine at that temperature for a couple of days while the others hatch. If needed, they can go 72 hours without food or water, but we always offer it, and they go for it earlier than that.

If you don't have any yet, you'll need to get some chick crumbles or all flock crumbles for them. The hen and other chickens can have that too.

Good luck! I wish you a great hatch!

 

[Feather queen]

Could you take the hen and put her and her nest and eggs/chicks in a pen? It's so much easier to let the mom raise them. Usually, they defend them against the rest of the flock, and the rest of the flock eventually respects the mom and her clutch and keeps away from them.

If that's not an option, your incubator should be at 99.5F / 37.5C and humidity 70% if they're soon to hatch in a few days.

The chick will be fine at that temperature for a couple of days while the others hatch. If needed, they can go 72 hours without food or water, but we always offer it, and they go for it earlier than that.

If you don't have any yet, you'll need to get some chick crumbles or all flock crumbles for them. The hen and other chickens can have that too.

Good luck! I wish you a great hatch!

Unfortunately I don't have anywhere safe to keep hens and babies at the moment, like I usually would and Unfortunately I have learned previously that one of the hens will kill her chick's and the let's all the others attack them (I usually don't let them go broody but I jusr got back from holidays and found them). Thank you so much for your help!

Will it affect the growth or health of the chick's inside the eggs if they are only around the 13 day mark?

 

[Debbie292d]

Unfortunately I don't have anywhere safe to keep hens and babies at the moment, like I usually would and Unfortunately I have learned previously that one of the hens will kill her chick's and the let's all the others attack them (I usually don't let them go broody but I jusr got back from holidays and found them). Thank you so much for your help!

Will it affect the growth or health of the chick's inside the eggs if they are only around the 13 day mark?

Yes! Chicks should only be at that 99.5 degree temp for a couple of days. Then you'll have to move them out to a brooder that's at around 90-95F. You can lower that temp by 5 degrees each week as a guideline.

I'd get yourself a cheap thermometer, the largest tub or box you can find, and something to heat them with. Here's an article about setting up a heat lamp. Some use brooder plates you should be able to find at a farm store or on Amazon. We use a black ceramic bulb in a UL-approved holder, and hang it by a chain in our brooder, but that's a homemade wooden one.

Here's all of the brooders folks posted so you could scroll through and see if you get some ideas.

This box or tub or something you build has to be large enough so you can put the heat on one side and the food/water on the other so they get away from the heat, and can go back when they're cold.

This setup though is only going to last for a couple of weeks and then you'll need something bigger, and since they can't go out to the coop, you'll have to come up with a safe/secure pen with a box for sleeping at night, or something along that line, and I'm assuming your weather there would be nice for them.