Mickey Lou,
Has your hen started to eat yet? Do you know how old the chick is? Are there more eggs she is still incubating? Can you feel the keel bone on the hen and see how thin she is? You might offer her something extra tasty and see if that gets her eating. Is she up and moving...
Have you candled the eggs that have not hatched yet to see if they are delevoping? If they are not she may have sensed that and left the non-viable eggs to care for the chicks. If you can't candle them, you might try holding them up to your ear to listen for internal pecking. At the very...
Awww...so sorry to hear that. I hope the rest make it. I have a broody coup inside my pen too in the warm weather and it works great. Also lets them be part of the flock without being vulnerable to the older birds picking on them. I break it down and store it when chick raising season is over.
You could try putting her back in the carrier when she returns to the old nest. She will eventually adjust to it and give up on the elevated nest. You might even try elevating the carrier for while and lower it a bit at a time once you see that she will continue using it. Is the elevated...
Pginsber,
I would just let her sit it out. If you do not have any other eggs for her to incubate there is nothing to lose. Incubation is about 21 days and if you are not sure what you are looking for it is possible they are just getting started. I would check them again in about a week...
That would be ideal...that she continues to incubate. Are you able to temporarily remove the other chicks from her and put them under a brooder light with food and water? I think she would be more likely to continue with the eggs if she doesn't have the lure of older chicks to pull her away ...
You may want to make a very small hole in the she and the membrane inside. Just big enough to allow air in but not big enough to cause bleeding, then just keep it warm and keep the humidity up. Humidity is very important. If it's too low it will stick ot the chick and keep it from being able...
She will be fne on the chick starter. You could also switch them over to a grower formula at this age. You just don't want to have the chicks on layer crumbles until about 16 weeks.. The high calcium content is too hard on their systems...
Keggen,
I have had my broody hen and her 12 youngsters in a separate broody coop within the big yard since they hatched. They have separate food/water. I have ready that the chicks need to be on starter crumbles for quite a while as the high calcium content in the layer crumbles are too hard...
I am looking closer at her and at the pictures online of Australorps now and wonder if she really is. Most of the pictures I have seen have single combs. My hen looks like she has a rose comb.....:idunno
My broody hen is now caring for 11 chicks (5 hatched this weekend and 6 last). She hatched about 1/2 of these herself and the rest were incubator hatched. I have one more that just hatched about an hour ago in the incubator and will add it to the clutch tomorrow. She didn't even blink when I...
I have a broody hen with eggs due to hatch this weekend. She has 6 under her and I have another 5 in the incubator (just in case one or the other does work out well). I also have 6 chicks that hatched last weekend. The hen is currently in an elevated nest box in the rgular coop. The chicks...