Anybody experienced a hen hatching in a milk crate above the floor? Do chicks jump out after hatchin

[chicklets81]

I have my first broody hen, and she is sitting on eggs inside a milk crate. Should I be worried that they will hatch, and jump down and die? Has anyone dealt with this before?

 

[PD-Riverman]

I have my first broody hen, and she is sitting on eggs inside a milk crate. Should I be worried that they will hatch, and jump down and die? Has anyone dealt with this before?

If you put all the eggs under her at the same time so she does not have a staggered hatch----then check on her late day 21 or early day 22---if she is ready to come off the nest she will be outside calling them---you can remove the chicks and turn the crate on its side OR you might could turn it on its side when she gets off the nest to eat---then fix something a few inches tall across the front to help hold everything inside the crate. Or if you got another crate---cut most of the front out and leave a few inches on the bottom, then when you catch her taking a break or at night just exchange the nesting and eggs to the new cut out one. Watching to make sure she settles back down on the eggs.

 

[chicklets81]

Thanks for this suggestion! I actually decided to take her entire milk crate, and move it to the floor of the coop. And I put a replacement crate in the spot where she was, because it was obvious that the crate she choose to put her nest in, was very popular with the other hens, because I ended up finding extra eggs in her nest everyday. After I moved her, she only has her own eggs everyday.

2 more weeks until hatch, yippee!