Broody Hen issue

[chirv]

Hello, I have a hen who is sitting on her first eggs and they should be ready to hatch any time now. Today when I got home from worked I checked to see if we had any eggs hatch and I saw a dead chick with its head out from under her wing. I removed it and I can't tell what happened. She actually let me check under her and there is a yokey mess under her. Should I get her up and clean the eggs and nest or since the eggs are close to hatching just let nature take its course?

 

[Sunny Dawn]

Hmmm. ...me not liking dirty hens would be tempted to clean her. However, if it is not that bad you should just let her hatch out the remaining. If it is bad, maybe you could wipe off the eggs quickly and replace them under her, she knows what to do. Probably better to leave her be, My guess is she may clean up the mess all by herself. Good luck! Let us know how things turn out.

 

[chirv]

Checked again today and smelled something funny so I got her out of nest and she had two more broken eggs. Cleaned nest up and she is back on. We'll see how it goes....

 

[Sunny Dawn]

Any luck with the hatch?

 

[chirv]

Just one so far. I'm expecting a few more soon. I did have to clean out under her as she had broken three eggs and it was quite smelly.

Most of the eggs under her were put there by our other chickens on different days but I stopped that about 3 weeks ago so we should see some eggs hatch in the next few days. When I cleaned out under her I also candled and did the water test and the remaining eggs still looked good. So fingers crossed.