Broody hen and hatching question

[laura8700]

Does this never end? My questions I mean.
Ok, so we just had a hatch of 7 chicks and the other night 2 ducklings from incubator. All of these babies are doing eggcellent
The kids went to check on our broody hen and she is sitting on 8 eggs! What in the world? Where is she getting these things?
I have literally no clue how long they have been under her but I know she started going broody a few weeks ago. Should I just pull all the eggs out tonight and candle them and take away the ones that I don't see anything in? Should I just let her sit on them and once a chick hatches remove other eggs and possibly stick in incubator?
I just sterilized the bator and was going to put it away but 8 eggs? I know they were not there when she started sitting in two!

Aye aye aye. And we are in the process of finishing up our new coop (which is amazing if I might add) the guys even added a nursery room for me to keep the little ones in.

Ok so enough rambling. Chicken eggsperts.. What should I do?

 

[red horse ranch]

I would candle the eggs tonight and see if they have chicks in them. And hopefully get an idea of what stage the development is. If they are fertile, but at different stages of development, then best keep the incubator handy.

 

[laura8700]

Alright. Ill
Go check and maybe have a better idea what I'm working with . Wish me luck lol

 

[laura8700]

So my husband just brought up a point . If I end up bringing extra eggs up that mrs broody does not hatch (after the first few she was sitting on hatch) then I am setting myself up for multiple stages of chicks. Ugh
He's telling me to leave them be and we will check them out after she gets done hatching the first few.

 

[red horse ranch]

I understand your husband's point. When my guinea hatched 6 keets this summer I put the remaining good eggs in the incubator. 2 to 3 eggs hatched every week. 16 days later the last one finally hatched! Don't know if I will do that again. If you aren't prepared to raise them yourself then you might just want to listen to hubby!

ps I still think it might be a good idea to candle and get rid of the duds.

 

[laura8700]

So the plot thickens. Yesterday the kids heard some chirps so we figured the babies were hatching . Daughter said when they went back in and checked the baby was already dead, halfway zipped ;(. Nothing else going on in there. She is solo in the coop now as we moved the others to their new house.

 

[Aphrael]

So the plot thickens. Yesterday the kids heard some chirps so we figured the babies were hatching . Daughter said when they went back in and checked the baby was already dead, halfway zipped ;(. Nothing else going on in there. She is solo in the coop now as we moved the others to their new house.

Is this her first time setting eggs? If so it is possible she got overly protective or excited and smooshed or suffocated the hatching chick. I had an australorp go broody, and she did this. She broke one egg the first week, no idea if it had been growing or not, as I don't candle broody eggs until a few days till hatch to remove duds. That left her with 7 eggs that she took right up to hatch day. 5 of them hatched just fine, but two got only halfway unzipped and she smooshed them. I think she was just overly eager, and she was very clumsy too. Of course, one of the smooshed ones just HAD to be the only beautiful olive egg she was sitting on.

 

[laura8700]

Yes, first time. She still has other eggs in there that were snuck in later so we will just keep an eye on her

 

[laura8700]

So one of the eggs hatched last night. It was a baby duck! Aye aye aye. She kicked little guy out of nest though so we have him inside in the incubator. Egg 2 in there is pipped and partially zipped (yep it's a duck egg as well). She has that egg out from
Under her near the back of the broody box )
I can see his inner membrane looks shrink wrapped but it also has some slight blood vessels going on. Sigh. I didn't expect to be midwifeing today ;(. I have him wrapped Ina. Warm wet paper towel and fired up that incubator as fast as I could. Wish me luck today.
The first guy is cute as can be although he was cold outside of that box last night.

 

[laura8700]

This is the guy the kids saved that mama kicked out.