UPDATE!! page 2 hatch under porch in a screen

[kefiren]

Hello All!
Here to get the wisdom, one for the books, I guess!
A long time ago, husband installed screening up against the underside of our porch floor boards, to keep bugs from crawling in.
A few weeks ago, one of my young hens disappeared, and I put it down to our predators.
We got home from a little trip, and my daughter thought she heard "broody talk" under the porch. But when we looked below we saw nothing.
Today, chick tweets began!
Crawling underneath, we can see that a hen has been sitting on a screen directly up against the floor boards. You can see at least two newborn live chicks under and some as-yet unhatched eggs!
It is currently in the high seventies, we are in New England so it gets cooler at night. We are headed into a warm few days, prob 90's in the day and low seventies at night.
It is a little weird, since there is no nest below her for the chicks protection/warmth, only the screen.
However, I suppose it was warm enough to allow the hatch!
We also cannot easily give food and water, and they are currently up about 2.5 feet high so they will have to jump to get down.
So it looks like a rescue is in order. But gosh, it will be quite akward, crawling on our bellies!
Rescue now? Wait till hatch is done? Leave them be? thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They'll be able to drop to the ground easily. She'll keep them warm.
Until predation takes them.

 

[Kiki]

I'd try to get them all moved to a safe place asap.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Growing up on the farm we had hens hide nests in all kinds of strange places and hatch chicks. More than once that included a 10' high hay loft, but sometimes it was in places we never found. The hen was always able to manage without our help. That included getting them to jump down from that hay loft.

I don't know what that area looks like but it sounds like they are not trapped in there. There are some configurations I'd worry about, such if they were in a window well and had to climb or fly out. But as long as they can walk or hop out I'd leave them alone. I find the more I interfere the more harm I do. Trying to move a broody hen in the middle of a hatch sounds like a disaster in the making, even more so if it is a hard to get to place.

It sounds like yours free range so you may not have serious predator issues or are willing to face them. On the farm growing up predators were not a big issue even though those broodies raised their chicks without being locked up. We all have different risk tolerances and different predator pressures. I cannot give you any guarantees about predators, either for your adults of those chicks. You may be fine, you may have a massacre of your adults or that broody and her chicks later today. That's the way predators work.

That hen has managed to incubate those eggs without getting picked off by a predator. Of course the chicks will be louder so the risk goes up. If it were me I'd wait until the hen brings then off the nest before I locked them up, if you decide to lock them up. But they are yours, do as you will.

If you do pick the hen up to lock her up, be careful. I killed a chick once doing that. The chicks like to crawl up under her feathers and wings. I crushed a chick under a broody's wing when I picked her up. That's one of my experiences when I say the more I interfere the more harm I do.

Good luck however you decide.

 

[kefiren]

Yes predation could be an issue, Chicken Canoe. I think it is a realistic thing to point out. It is a good reason to intervene... Sooner rather than later. Those loud peeps can't be good for that. Once, a predator dug right into our coop to get at peeping chicks. I have a dog house with a door I can put them in at night, within the confines of the coop.

Kiki's Girls I'm ultra worried about how to get them down without eggs dropping from the ceiling! I just now tried to squeeze my hand in with them to adjust a cold chick, but was unable to get my hand directly in, but was able to push at the screening to return the chick to mom's side. The screening is quite tight against the rafters! She must really squeeze in there to go back and forth each day.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

I would continue to try and gather Mom and her Peeps. It could be a staggered hatch, so be careful with the eggs. Best of luck! Would love to see pix!!!!

 

[kefiren]

Thank you RidgeRunner for your long reply! Predation for some reason hit a very high high last winter and has been light ever since then. Tons of bunnies and birdies too. We had a bob cat, but it moved on, I wouldn't be surprised it if comes back in the same season it was here before (just a guess). I know we have a fox currently.

We clipped wings recently to keep the birds in their paddock, but this one was probably one of the few that manages to still fly. So my girls are "incidentally free range".

I actually think they are safer when they can fly, since our current line of predators comes over the fence. We lock up tightly at night, and sometimes I leave them in until mid morning because that is when a lot of our predation occurs.

It was a fisher cat who dug into the coop, haven'nt seen one of those lately.

I totally agree that moving a broody during hatch sounds like a bad idea. I've had mama's get weird even without stress like that.

 

[Chickens4Life101]

Mom has food and water under control. She knows what she is doing But predators are an issue. But it would be a bad idea to move her, since there may be some more eggs that are getting ready to hatch. But once they all hatch, mom should move them back to the coop

 

[kefiren]

Oh, Chickens4Life, you think the mom herself will move them to the coop?

Chick-N-Fun, I wish I knew how to post photos and videos. Are videos a thing here? We do have a good video.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...

...That's one of my experiences when I say the more I interfere the more harm I do.

....

My sentiment exactly. They've been doing this a lot longer than we have.