Chick Problems ?

[Stocker Steve]

We were gone for a couple days and come home to find a 3 yr old hen brooding 5 eggs. We let the old girl have her way. I never saw her move for the next 3 weeks, and I never picked her up to look.

Two days ago the chicks started to hatch. Now we have 5 chicks, but I checked and she is still brooding 8 more eggs. Would it be normal for her to stay on the nest for another 7 to 10 days to hatch out more, or do we just need to clean out the nest at some point?

 

[Rafter S]

I assume other hens were laying eggs in the nest with her while she was setting, and those are the eggs she's on now. They will probably eventually hatch, but if they were laid there at random times then they'll be hatching one or two at a time. It's hard to say how long she'll stay on them. It depends on the breed and the individual hen. Years ago I used a bantam hen to hatch out Guinea eggs, which take 28 days, and it worked fine.
I also assume you took the chicks away from her, or are they still with her? If they're still with her then I'd recommend getting the other eggs out from under her so she'll get off the nest and take care of the chicks.

 

[slick4591]

I assume other hens were laying eggs in the nest with her while she was setting, and those are the eggs she's on now. They will probably eventually hatch, but if they were laid there at random times then they'll be hatching one or two at a time. It's hard to say how long she'll stay on them. It depends on the breed and the individual hen. Years ago I used a bantam hen to hatch out Guinea eggs, which take 28 days, and it worked fine.
I also assume you took the chicks away from her, or are they still with her? If they're still with her then I'd recommend getting the other eggs out from under her so she'll get off the nest and take care of the chicks.

:nod: Good advice.

 

[Stocker Steve]

She still has the chicks with her. I saw her walk a couple feet to the feeder today, she and the chicks ate, then she went back to the nest eggs, and the chicks followed and tucked back in. Will the chicks not get out for enough food and water if she stays on the nest?

 

[branguscowgirl]

Make sure that you have water and chick mash close to them. I would put it as close as you can, (but nothing that the chicks can drown in.)
I honestly do not know how long she will sit and try to hatch the rest of those eggs. They may not all be good if other chickens had been laying in the nest. So there has got to be some point that you clean them out, I just don't know when.

 

[dun]

Make sure that you have water and chick mash close to them. I would put it as close as you can, (but nothing that the chicks can drown in.)
I honestly do not know how long she will sit and try to hatch the rest of those eggs. They may not all be good if other chickens had been laying in the nest. So there has got to be some point that you clean them out, I just don't know when.

I would do it now and probably candle the eggs and incubate them myself if they have germinated OK. Only problem with that would be raising the humidity in the incubator for the eggs a day or 2 before they hatch and not raising it for those that aren;t close to hatching.

 

[cow pollinater]

I'm like Dun in that I'd candle them before I let her keep sitting on them. Some birds will sit on rotten eggs all summer if you let them.

 

[CottageFarm]

I had one that was broody about 80% of the time. I would let her get together a clutch of 8-10 eggs over a couple of days, then mark those with a sharpy so anything she tried to add after that, I could take away. When they hatched, I would move her and the chicks to my brooder with their own water and chick starter, until they were about 5 weeks old. Kept them safe from the other hens. Then I moved them to a smaller separate coop, but adjacent to the main coop, until they were 10-12 weeks old. The broody hen would usually want to start sitting on another clutch by the time the chicks were 8-10 weeks, so Id let her back in with the main flock. By the time the chicks were 12 weeks, they could be integrated into the main flock, or sold.

 

[JSCATTLE]

We always marked ours with a pencil. I was told ink would kill the embryos.

 

[slick4591]

We always marked ours with a pencil. I was told ink would kill the embryos.

I've read that too, but all of mine get marked with a sharpie.

 

[Rafter S]

We always marked ours with a pencil. I was told ink would kill the embryos.

I've read that too, but all of mine get marked with a sharpie.

I used a Marks-a-Lot on some eggs years ago, and the few that hatched didn't live long.

 

[slick4591]

I used a Marks-a-Lot on some eggs years ago, and the few that hatched didn't live long.

Maybe I could switch to pencil and get better hatch rates, but this was my outdoor brooder a few weeks ago and every egg was marked with the same sharpie. Can't say the sharpie has caused me any problems.

~Click on the pic for the video