Broody Hatched Chicks-Advice/Info Needed

[Patchesnposies]

Our hen, Amity, went broody and has been sitting on 9 eggs. They started to hatch over night and we woke up to one little one with its mama. There were also two eggs that looked like she might have pecked them open with fully formed babies inside, but they were dead. One hadn't even opened the membranes, it looked like Amity had peeled the shell off around one whole side of it.

Is that due to inexperience?

We took the rest of her eggs and put them into the incubator where we have Serama eggs coming into hatch as well. Two of them have pipped.

I also took her baby that did hatch and put it into the brooder.

Do broody hens usually keep their babies, and raise them for a while?

We kept Amity and her eggs in a dog carrier in the house because the other hens kept messing with her. We'd take her out once a day to eat and do her huge broody poop. That part worked well.....now we have to figure out how to handle the hatch and the raising.

I'd love to hear what other folks have done and how we can make next time more successful for the mama hen.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I can't really give you any advice, but I'm going through a similar experience. My broody was sitting on a bunch of eggs and 3 hatched. She got off the eggs to take care of the chicks so I removed the chicks. She went back to sitting on the eggs and the following week 2 more hatched. I removed the last 3 eggs; 2 weren't fertile and one was fully developed but cold/dead.

I let her keep the two chicks and didn't confine her/them. After a day or two she started taking the little ones outside, along with her helper hen. I came home Friday to the other hens carrying around one dead chick; no idea what happened. The mama and helper hen are guarding the last chick exceptionally well. This is our first time (hers and mine) so I'm just watching and letting it play out. I thought about separating them from the others but she's so used to not being confined that I think it would do more harm than good at this point. I wish you luck with yours!