Broody killed her chick

[Kat C]

Just a thought. A mother hen should get up and eat but some don't. I usually pull them off the eggs to eat every few days. But I also give them a dish of food, egg, greens, veggies every day. Given that she ate up the cat food, perhaps she was hungry. Has she been eating every day or every few days?

 

[theuglyduckling]

Just a thought. A mother hen should get up and eat but some don't. I usually pull them off the eggs to eat every few days. But I also give them a dish of food, egg, greens, veggies every day. Given that she ate up the cat food, perhaps she was hungry. Has she been eating every day or every few days?

i have her in a dog house but she is blocked off from the rest of the chickens so they cant get in there and try to lay. i let her out everyday for 20 minutes but yesterday she was a little rushed because it was raining and i was worried that the temperature outside would affect the chicks. usually i put her back once she seems like shes had enough. tomorrow ill make sure to feed her early and maybe throughout the day maybe if shes full of food she wont bother eating any chicks.

 

[Kat C]

i have her in a dog house but she is blocked off from the rest of the chickens so they cant get in there and try to lay. i let her out everyday for 20 minutes but yesterday she was a little rushed because it was raining and i was worried that the temperature outside would affect the chicks. usually i put her back once she seems like shes had enough. tomorrow ill make sure to feed her early and maybe throughout the day maybe if shes full of food she wont bother eating any chicks.

Sounds like a good thing to try .... hoping it works out for you

 

[theuglyduckling]

So just wondering if she kills another chick would an ice chest with a heat lamp and a sheet over the top of the ice chest with something damp inside work as a hatcher?

 

[Kat C]

You are so close to hatch I expect any set up that keeps the eggs at the right temps would work. That sounds fine if the temps are right.
The Chinese incubated eggs without electricity for centuries. You can read about it here in these pages from Farmers of Forty Centuries
https://books.google.com/books?id=F...nepage&q=40 centuries incubating eggs&f=false

 

[theuglyduckling]

I checked the broody this morning and i gave her more cat food she ate some but i think she is still full from yesterday and i tried to check under her i heard one peeping but i couldnt see which egg it was. I didnt see any pips in any of the eggs but i could hear a chick peeping from one of them and it sounded like it was strong. I hope yesterdays chick was just a fluke and maybe todays will be better if any actually start to hatch.

 

[theuglyduckling]

@Kat C another chick hatched! This time she didnt ear it and the chick seems happy and healthy its hiding under mom but the hen ate the shell instead of kicking it out of the nest is that normal?

 

[Kat C]

@Kat C another chick hatched! This time she didnt ear it and the chick seems happy and healthy its hiding under mom but the hen ate the shell instead of kicking it out of the nest is that normal?

Our mother hens don't usually eat all the shell when chicks hatch. However I presume she ate it because she needed the calcium. Sometimes too the shell gets lost in the litter.

So happy things are going better now. The things that can go wrong with hatching chicks under hens are endless, but the rewards are boundless.

We feed egg shell to our hens all the time, along with some oyster shell. We wash it and dry it and crush it. All our hens love it and prefer it to the oyster shell. However when I put the left over egg shells from hatching out they don't eat it as well as our "processed" shells.
BTW I think most dogs and cats eat the placenta when they birth their babies. In nature everything gets recycled. By and large I find that chickens make good food choices as long as I don't throw a loaf of white bread in the chicken yard

 

[Trish1974]

Please keep us posted on how it goes!

 

[WVduckchick]

Awww, so glad this story took a better turn! Be sure and post some pics of the momma and babies.