Help my hen stopped sitting on her nest after a few hatched!!!

[celestesolis70]

My hen has ten eggs she hatched four over the last five days and now is walking around the yard with the chick and not sitting on the nest? One egg has started hatching and I hear peeping but the others haven't ? they are cold and I have no incubator? will the hatch and should I help and open the rest? help please?

 

[Odelia]

Do not open the egg for the chick. Can you keep it warm and humid? You said they hatched over the last 5 days? Did you put eggs under her over several days?

 

[celestesolis70]

No I have three hens that like to lay eggs in the same nest . None of them have ever went boody I was I found her sitting on eggs one day and I thought I'll just leave her and see what happens? one is peeping and there are more I don't want to loose them and don't know what to do?
This is hers and my first time!

 

[Odelia]

Can you lock her up with the chicks and eggs? If you have a small enough space she may sit on them again. Otherwise if you want to save them you need to keep them warm and humid.

 

[donrae]

You'll either need to write those late eggs off, or research an improvised incubator for the next few days. This is why staggered hatches suck, sorry.

 

[lazy gardener]

I doubt very much if you can entice her to go back to finish the job. She's doing what God designed her to do. In a normal situation, the hen would visit the nest every day until she had accumulated a clutch of eggs. Then, she'd hike up her skirt, and hunker down for the prescribed 21 days. They'd all hatch at the same time. She'd sit tight until they were all done hatching, then take them out to learn how to be chickens. By adding eggs to the nest after she'd started incubating, an un-natural situation was set up. So, she's taking care of the ones who have hatched. To stay on the nest for late comers would put those already hatched in jeopardy. That's why we wait until a hen is proven to be broody, and give her a whole clutch of eggs at the same time, and remove any late entries. So, your best bet would be to bring all the rest of the eggs inside, and rig up a lamp, over a nice warm towel, perhaps with a dish of water for humidity. You want to aim for 99 - 100* at the height of the eggs. Good luck, keep us posted.