Broody hen keeps getting off of her eggs... Will they still hatch?! ):

[lothefarmer]

we have a broody hen who hatched one of her five eggs four days ago, and now to care for the chick, she keeps getting off of her eggs for... a while at a time. I don't know how long, but the eggs are cold when we find her. we always set her back on the eggs, and she stays with them, so she is obviously still interested in hatching them. we think she is getting up for food, and only ventures out when her food runs out in her box. she's done this three times, so far. i'm worried about those eggs. btw, we live in the bay area, so it isn't too cold here right now.
but, do you think they will still hatch?

the first & the rest of the eggs were laid about a week apart, so if they do hatch, they probably will around thursday... so i'm not worried that they haven't hatched yet...
should we still give the eggs a chance, or take them away, so she can focus on caring for the baby?
this is our first hatching, so i'm clueless also about how to care for the chick. we have them set up in an extra nesting box in the coop with food and water. is there anything else we should be doing?

thanks.

 

[kano]

Quote:
Sorry may be I am not undestanding straigth, then , you didn't puT ALL the eggs at the same moment??

BIG mistake. If you want more than one, you must do this way, ALL THE EGGS AT THE SAME TIME. or the hen ,when the first chick is born, she'll wait only for one day, and then she will abandon the rest of the clutch.

 

[growinupinfl]

Well she needs to get up and feed the chick that hatched already else it will parish, I don't know what to tell you. I know I have two broodies that started hatching out over the weekend there are two that haven't hatched as of tonight.. If they don't hatch I'm most likely going to pull them out and see if they are still viable. If so I will most likely keep them in the house in an incubator to make sure. But I honestly don't know what to tell you..I guess go with your gut feeling..

Christal

 

[MuranoFarms]

If you can stick them in an incubator I would do that. If you cant.....all you can do is hope she stays on them long enough for them to hatch.

Good luck!

 

[Judy]

People on here have had some success with stuff like heating pads. Chicks have even hatched by being carried in a bra for 21 days. You could try something like that, though I suppose success is not likely.

 

[Surehatch]

Quote:
Good advice

 

[lothefarmer]

we don't have an incubator... we weren't even planning on having chicks, but she was too hard to break so we just let her have the eggs and tried to see what happened.. in any case, we ended up throwing them out because they died.. ugh.

thanks everyone for all of the helpful advice, i appreciate it. next time i will be more prepared and will know what to do.

and about the bra thing.. my boyfriend actually told me to do that, but i didn't think it would work, hah!

i will have to try it sometime though, lol.