Broody mama lost all 8 eggs.

[natalie327]

My 4th time broody hen had zero hatches of her 6 eggs, by day 21. This was in June of this year, in Austin, TX, and I can only attribute the constant rain during her incubation to blame (the humidity must have been too high, as she and the nest stayed dry and safe). Anyhow, the 22nd day I got her 4 baby chicks and also snuck them into her nest after bedtime. I took her out and placed her on the ground, then replaced the eggs with the chicks. It was SO adorable to watch mama hen become very quizzically alert to the babies cheeping, and without even seeing them yet, she started clucking to them! She then went around the corner into her coop, up to her nest box and peeked in, and then instantly climbed in on top of them and settled them underneath her. It just melted my heart! In the morning, they were peeking out from under her and hopping around her as if she’d hatched them herself. So sweet. They’re 7 weeks old now and she’s finishing up the mothering phase, just as she’s done with her 3 prior clutches.

Side note: once she only hatched a few chicks and I tried supplementing with 2 new baby chicks (the others were about 1.5 week old) and mama hen was NOT having the new babies. She acted as if she was warding off predators! When one little baby had the courage to follow her as she and her other babies walked away, she turned around and pecked it so hard she lifted it in the air and ripped a little gash in the back of its neck!! I immediately removed the new babies and rehomed them the same day. Moral of the story is mama hens will only accept new babies while they are still in the broody/ hatching stage!