leave with mom or bring to brooder?

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getreal

getreal

Songster
9 Years
May 9, 2014
322
150
196
Upper Peninsula of MI
my silkie hen hatched a chick night before last. she is in the coop with her sister and a rooster. all raised together. she still has 4 eggs she is sitting on. should I take the first one inside and let her concentrate on her other eggs? I'm concerned the chick won't get to food and water.
 
Also, if it's been 48 hours since hatch, and there are no signs of the other eggs hatching, odds are good that she will get up and leave them soon to take care of the hatched chick.
Did you set all the eggs at once?
 
Not good. That's why when setting eggs, you set them all at once, mark them, and remove any that get added to the clutch by other hens. Otherwise chicks will hatch, the hen will get up to take care of the hatched ones, and leave a bunch of partially developed eggs behind, never to sit on them again.
Do you have an incubator to put the rest of the eggs in?
 
No I don't. I have these marked. The rest she collected I removed the same day. I have her in a pen within the coop and a tote overturned with the side open. She has food and water and a small dish of chick feed in the pen. I have marbles in the waterer for safety.
 
If they haven't hatched by now, they aren't going to. Next time you let a hen sit, remove the eggs under her daily. Give her what you want to hatch all at once. When a hen is broody, she stops laying. It's nature's way of ensuring that all the eggs hatch around the same time. The eggs that were getting added were likely from another hen.
When she gets off the nest, she's not coming back. Her focus will now be caring for the chick. The urge to sit will have passed and the still developing eggs will be abandoned. You may be able to rig up an incubator to finish the remaining eggs off. https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=diy+incubator
 

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