Are you supposed to check under your broody hen if you don’t want dead chicks?

[BastyPutt]

Broody hens don't need to learn anything. They have been hatching chicks using pure instincts since before they were first domesticated thousands of years ago. As with any living animal bad things can happen, life does not come with a guarantee. Sometimes a broody hen might get something wrong because their instinct may not be perfect, but the vast majority of the time the broody hens get it right. I find the more I interfere the more harm I cause.

Not every egg will hatch. That is just the way it is. Many won't develop to start with. Some can die anytime during development, even as they are hatching. It could be something like a birth defect, could be something else.

The way you describe the appearance of those two eggs makes me think of something else though. With the shell crumbled away, one with the membrane intact and one with the membrane broken, it sounds like the hen may have been defending her nest, maybe against a snake, rat, or dog or maybe another hen. I trust you didn't have a kid sticking a hand in there. Rarely but sometimes a hen will kill her own chicks or some of her own chicks, those instincts aren't always perfect. Those would be my top suspects. When a hen goes ballistic defending her babies she can damage eggs or even chicks.

I don't know what happened to that hatch. I have no reason to think you did anything wrong, sometimes things just don't go perfectly. That is part of life.

This is a great post, and 100% correct. Hens are hatched, knowing how to hatch. We NEVER disturb a hatching hen much less her eggs, until we see her walking out and about with the chicks. She knows a million more tips and tricks than we could ever hope to learn.

If there are chicks that fail to hatch, she also knows what to do with those - we usually find them respectfully pushed to the side, while they focus on the new little ones.

Once I attempted to peak under a broody hen and that was the last time I'll ever do that. She attacked me like no rooster ever has. Had me screaming the whole way back to the house.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Broody hens don't need to learn anything. They have been hatching chicks using pure instincts since before they were first domesticated thousands of years ago. As with any living animal bad things can happen, life does not come with a guarantee. Sometimes a broody hen might get something wrong because their instinct may not be perfect, but the vast majority of the time the broody hens get it right. I find the more I interfere the more harm I cause.

Not every egg will hatch. That is just the way it is. Many won't develop to start with. Some can die anytime during development, even as they are hatching. It could be something like a birth defect, could be something else.

The way you describe the appearance of those two eggs makes me think of something else though. With the shell crumbled away, one with the membrane intact and one with the membrane broken, it sounds like the hen may have been defending her nest, maybe against a snake, rat, or dog or maybe another hen. I trust you didn't have a kid sticking a hand in there. Rarely but sometimes a hen will kill her own chicks or some of her own chicks, those instincts aren't always perfect. Those would be my top suspects. When a hen goes ballistic defending her babies she can damage eggs or even chicks.

I don't know what happened to that hatch. I have no reason to think you did anything wrong, sometimes things just don't go perfectly. That is part of life.

Agree

 

[babychickens321]

We have a broody hen hatching our first set of chicks (so, she’s new at it, too). Day 21 was yesterday, and today a fluffy chick emerged from under her. We saw her stand up and saw another chick. A few hours later we saw a beak emerging from an egg. We decided after a few hours to check on it, and it was emerging fine. But because we physically lifted the hen, we were able to see two other eggs that didn’t look good. We pulled them and took them in the house to assist. On one, half of the shell had crumbled away from the membrane, which was fully intact. On the other, it was the same sort of thing except the membrane not fully intact and was broken through. Both chicks were dead. Sad!

So, once the “due date” hits, are you supposed to regularly check to see if any hatchlings need assistance? Was new momma just not sure what to do and didn’t get up enough to allow them to properly hatch, or should she have assisted?

One thing that was disturbing is that after this, we went back out to inspect all the eggs carefully, and one of her chicks has fallen out of the nesting box and was pacing back and forth, and momma wasn’t trying to help.

I feel very uncomfortable now with this situation. We were hoping momma would take care of everything, but now I’m starting to think that maybe we would have been better off hatching and raising them ourselves.

I do check quite often when my broody hen has started hatching her eggs. I dont think lifting her up for a few seconds has a great impact on her ability to mother her already hatched chicks and doesnt really bother her. and lifting her super quickly lets you know how many are yet to be hatched (even though its not something you need to know, I just want to know) and if there is one that's struggling to hatch you can help. you dont have to check, but you may lose a few chicks that couldn't hatch. although, I've only been checking under a super docile broody, not sure how easy it would be to check a super defensive one. she may also start screaming and jumping out of the coop to attack you so in THAT case I would avoid disturbing her.