Chickens hatching eggs

[sassychickenlady]

I have several hens laying, I have had 1 chick hatch about 1 month ago, then yesterday I had 2 more hatch. The only bad thing is the hen is still sitting on eggs and left the chicks on the ground. See the nesting boxes are up off the ground. The first chick could not get out of the nesting box, but the 2 yesterday were down on the ground with the Mom when I discovered them, but when night time came, the mom left the babies and returned to the nest box.....Help, I have 3 babies in the house, and want the mama to take care of them! What do I do?

 

[TinyBirds]

Is there any way to put the nesting box on the ground? Maybe that's the only thing causing the trouble.

Also, some breeds are better moms than others. I've found that you can put a young silkie (maybe age 3-4 months) in with small chicks and they will mother them immediately. I have a silkie in with 40 chicks right now and she takes very good care of all of them. I've done that with 3 other different silkies too, all successfully. If you don't have a silkie, you could try putting her in a small enclosed area with the chicks (placing the chicks under her at night) and watch closely to see what happens. There's a risk she could kill them though (had that happen to me once too). Good luck!