Hen hatching two different aged eggs??? Please help!!

[antrimfarm]

My Blue wyandotte went broody about ten days ago, so we got her some fertilized eggs from a friend of ours to sit on. Apparently some of the eggs were already developing, while the others had just been fertilized before we got them.

We candled the eggs a few nights ago and about half of the eggs are several days older than the others.

What can I do? Should I take the first set of chicks inside and hand raise them so the mama will sit on the rest and hatch them? Or can she take care of her chicks and still hatch out the rest of the eggs? This is our first broody hen hatch so I am very much a beginner at this.

Also, this mama is in a high up nest box that barely fits her in it. Can she raise chicks there or should I move her? Or is that too risky?

I am willing to do some things to make this work, but I can't really coddle her too much as I have a lot going on right now.


Please help!! I'd appreciate it so much.

 

[redhen689]

There are many different ways you can handle the situation. Once the first batch of eggs have hatched, she will stop incubating the rest of the eggs. She will leave the nest with her hatchlings, and they won't be able to get back on the nest. If she is a smart mama, she will find a safe place on the floor/ground to nest with the hatchlings. It woluld be helpful if you set up something for her. (I had a hen that flew up to her nest and kept calling for the chicks to come. She wasn't smart enough to know they couldn't fly up to the nesting box.)
You could take out either the more developed chicks or the less developed, it's up to you. She might not adopt the one she didn't hatch if the hatch dates are more than a couple of days apart.
Good luck!

 

[antrimfarm]

Thank you! I appreciate the information. Are you suggesting that I incubate one set of eggs and let her have the other? I don't have an incubator.

 

[chicklittlel]

I have sorta the same situation going on right now--new eggs kept getting laid in the nest after hen started setting. When the first two hatched she left the nest with them. I fortunately had another hen who had started setting about a week ago and I put the unhatched eggs under her. So far, 3 more have hatched and I have taken them out from under their temporary mother and placed them under the hen who started them. She has accepted them. It's usually better to slip them in at night, but be sure to watch carefully the next morning 'cause sometimes they can tell the difference and not take them. If that happens, you will have to raise them under a heat source. If you don't have any way to hatch the later eggs, I would take the first ones that hatch from the mother as soon as they hatch so she will hopefully stay on the nest until the later eggs hatch, then try to slip the older ones in with the newer ones when they hatch. Keep the first hatched ones under heat source in the meantime. She may or may not take them--just be sure to watch how she is with them at first--if she doesn't accept them she may try to hurt them.

 

[antrimfarm]

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking that was what I was going to do, but I am so unsure of when they will hatch I don't know when I need to be ready! Is there a chance that if I don't take them away soon enough she will leave the rest of the eggs cold? Argh. I just can't bare to lose babies after seeing all the veins and heart beats and little black eyes. It was like a chicken ultrasound, lol! It was so exciting!

 

[Sonia]

What I do is take the babies and brood them myself. If you get them before she leaves the nest with them she *should* stay on the remaining eggs.

 

[antrimfarm]

OK. I will try to do that. I'm hoping to candle the eggs again this weekend, is there a way to tell a hatch date from candling?

 

[Sonia]

I'm sure more experienced folks can tell hatch times from candling but I sure can't ;-) I just check on mama twice a day every day.

 

[antrimfarm]

Okey dokey. Sounds like I will be doubling my harassing visits to the poor mama to be. Good grief, the look that chicken gives me when I open the door to her box is deadly! I love her though. My son named her Darth Vader and it just cracks me up thinking that Darth Vader is going to be a mommy lol!!!

 

[Sonia]

I take yummy treats every time I go out