Broody eating hatching chicks?

[jluna16]

Day 21/22 today. Been checking the broody throughout the last couple days and no signs of hatching til this afternoon we saw one egg pipped near the front of her chest. Then this evening just now checked again and her chest was sopping wet (what little feathers she has left on her chest) and no sign of the pipped egg that was at the front. We took her out and counted and there were only 10 eggs when at last count 5 days ago she had 11. There was a pipped egg at the back. We zoomed the eggs to the incubator and still hearing peeping and 2-3 other eggs rocking also. Made sure to keep them same side up as they were in the nest... Did I do the right thing? Do hens wet themselves with water to keep humidity up while chicks are hatching or move pipping eggs to the back while hatching?

 

[sylviethecochin]

We took her out and counted and there were only 10 eggs when at last count 5 days ago she had 11.

Could something else have taken one? Could it have gotten lost in the bedding?

There was a pipped egg at the back.

Lockdown hens don't usually shuffle their eggs too much. It's possible that she could have, of course, but I've not seen them do it. I lift brooding hens off the nest occasionally, to remove empty eggshells and such, and the eggs that were in the back seem to stay there.

We zoomed the eggs to the incubator and still hearing peeping and 2-3 other eggs rocking also. Made sure to keep them same side up as they were in the nest

Good luck with that.

Did I do the right thing?

Given the information you have, it sounds reasonable.

Do hens wet themselves with water to keep humidity up while chicks are hatching or move pipping eggs to the back while hatching?

Wet themselves? Not that I've ever seen. Was there water available that she might have spilled on herself? Unless she's a very bad broody, she would not have left the nest.

On the other hand, by the time an egg gets around to zipping, there's not usually much water left in the egg for her to get herself wet with.

If you want her to raise the chicks, I'd keep the eggs in the incubator, but put ceramic eggs, or golfballs, or some other substitute under her, and introduce the hatched chicks when you can watch. Pity it's Monday.

 

[jluna16]

Thanks so much for your quick reply! We have had some sparrows in the coop coming in through the chicken wire... Gonna do some renos as soon as this batch of chicks is out of there if we can get her to adopt them back... Kinda thinking I panicked too quickly, but had just never seen that before. This is her first time and her biological mother was terribly mean to all the chicks other hens had last year so we've not been totally trusting of her, even though she has guarded her nest ferociously throughout her time in it now.

 

[jluna16]

There were no "remains" - eggshell, yolk, nothing... hard to believe she would have eaten it that quickly and completely without getting gunk on her. She was just wet. When I went into the coop, there was a sparrow flying around, not in the maternity area, but in the main area. She may have been defending her nest from the sparrow if it possibly if it got through the chicken wire into her area... I have her water very near so she can drink without getting up. May also be why the pipped egg was now in the back? If it was the same egg...

 

[sylviethecochin]

There were no "remains" - eggshell, yolk, nothing... hard to believe she would have eaten it that quickly and completely without getting gunk on her. She was just wet. When I went into the coop, there was a sparrow flying around, not in the maternity area, but in the main area. She may have been defending her nest from the sparrow if it possibly if it got through the chicken wire into her area... I have her water very near so she can drink without getting up. May also be why the pipped egg was now in the back? If it was the same egg...

It's possible she got up to chase something off, as you describe. I doubt a sparrow, though, (Unless your chickens hate them for some reason? All flocks being different, and all that). I know mine ignore them.

A hen could eat something as small as a chick nearly whole, and clean up after. It would be very odd, but not impossible.

If the water dries dry, it was probably just water, if it dries sticking her feathers together, it could be the egg.

 

[J99]

I am just beginning this adventure and was just reading that only a bad broody would leave the nest but doesn’t she need to leave at least once a day to eat and drink and expel? I was going to move mine to food once a day to just keep her alive but is there a day I need to stop moving her

 

[J99]

Literally I just have her eggs this is day two

 

[sylviethecochin]

a bad broody would leave the nest

During the last two days of incubation, when they have peeping eggs under them? Yes. They need to preserve the humidity in the nest, so that the eggs can successfully hatch.

Before that, it's normal and healthy for a hen to take one or two breaks a day.

 

[Morrigan]

I had something very similar to me happen with a broody.

Here is the thread about it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ch-and-would-a-broody-eat-dead-chicks.913102/

I'll never know what happened. Either she consumed, in toto, non-viable, but non-rotten, eggs and chicks; or she kicked them out of the nest and something else ate them; or something got into the nest (although I think this option is very unlikely). Gross as it sounds, my best guess is that she ate them. I know broody hens will eat eggs that break during their brood to keep the nest clean.

I will only add that, I let this same hen sit again the following year, and although her hatch was poor due to an exploding rotten egg on day 17 (which I cleaned up for her as best I could), some chicks did hatch, no eggs went missing, and she was an excellent mother.

 

[jluna16]

Yes to possible exploding... Wondering if one egg may have exploded as looking at them closely once I had them in the incubator, one was seeping some sort of puss. Snatched it out and it smelled awful! Threw it across the highway (in the middle of the night so no traffic ) and no signs of life in the puddle.

This morning that first chick has hatched and is very lively. A second egg is pipping and shaking off and on. Last night I put mama back on the nest with golf balls while we let them hatch here in the house. Hoping to adopt them back to her if possible.