Allowing the hen to move?

[Parkourpeep]

I posted about some sand related bedding earlier.
This time I need some help with a broody Cochin Bantam.

Her personality is skittish for a Cochin, but she is a good mother (has reared three chicks before)

This time she is rearing three more. (One hatched today)

Now when I candled the eggs in the early days one had veins popping and the other two weren't developing yet. (They are all definitely fertile though)

I'm guessing there is about a day or half a days difference.
Now if the Cochin doesn't try to take the one chick out they should hatch tomorrow late morning or afternoon, perhaps even late tonight.

Since the one chick hatched however (sometime in the middle of day today) I doubt the hen has gotten up to eat, drink, and etc. (she has been pecking the hay, either she is hungry or she is just adjusting things)

So what are your guys advice? Should I take her off the eggs to let her do her stuff?
I think some problems are: she will abandoned the unhatched (maybe) eggs, or she will be off too long and the eggs will get too cold.

Another small problem is what should I do with the already born chick? If the eggs don't hatch sometime early tomorrow should I move him/her to a brooder? The problem with that is the hen may decide to get off now that the chick is gone.

Sorry for the flustering. The previous hatch was one hatching and the others eventually hatching later in the night.

Advice? Thanks in advance.

 

[Blooie]

My gut feeling is that if you saw veining in one egg and not the others, they are maybe more than a day behind the one that was developing. And just because you are sure an egg is fertile does not mean it's going to develop - sometimes they start and then just die in the shell before they get very far. That scenario fits with the rest of your post about one egg hatching and the others not. Give them another day or so and then candle them, if you can. If you can't, that's okay too.....just wait until your calendar count shows you are beyond hatching time or she abandons them on her own because she knows nothing more is going to happen. The first, now-hatched egg just may have been an early developer if it hatched at day 18. And for Heaven's sake, if you notice a really bad odor coming out of the nest find that bad egg and get it out of there. I cleaned exploded egg out of a nest, off eggs,and off a very fluffy broody hen once - it ain't no fun and it seems like the smell stays on your nose hairs, torturing you for days afterwards!!

As for moving the broody to do her business, I wouldn't. When we are hatching eggs in an incubator, we make a big thing out of "lockdown", where we raise the humidity, lock down the incubator and then don't open that incubator at all. (that's the theory - some of us can't stop candling even then!

) That lockdown is to imitate the broody hen when she parks her hiney firmly onto the nest and doesn't move for any reason - eating, drinking, pooping, stretching! Almost every broody does that, and it's a natural progression in the incubation process. She won't starve. I also wouldn't be so hasty to remove the hatched chick unless you firmly believe it at risk!!

I am admittedly no expert, and what you decided to do is ultimately up to you. You know your situation and your broody better than I do. You're there, and I'm not. Good luck!

 

[Parkourpeep]

Good news! Everyone has hatched.

The first one is running around the nest, doing what the elder sibling does.
The second one to hatch looks alike to the first (they are either related or came from same type of breeds)

The third is half Barred rock X Minorca.
It took the longest to hatch and it isn't doing the best. Sometime yesterday afternoon it had started pipping, along with the second chick. The second chick came earlier and was fluffy by the time the third had started hatching. It came out sometime this morning.
What bothers me is it isn't doing anything, it just lays down, it will chirp occasionally and will move its head a little, maybe scramble on the ground a bit.
I'm worried if it is sick, or if it is just tired. I checked it over twice briefly, nothing I could see but had a bit of dried blood from hatching. (I believe)

Do you guys think it is just exhausted? It has been 5-6 hours since it has hatched, it has been squirming a bit but that is it.

Also I noticed under it and the second hatched chick little sacks. Are these part of the yolk they absorbed? Or something else? It isn't on the oldest chick. Thanks in advance