Chicks are hatching in nesting box!!

[bobbi-j]

Hurry up and wait is a human emotion, hens only understand hurry up and do something. You will likely loose the chicks in the last eggs if they're 3 but especially if they're 4 days behind the other chicks. Hens in and by nature are predisposed to only sit on eggs that she laid herself so all chicks will hatch more or less together and the hen can then begin showing them how to make their way in the world. Hens have non of the milk of human kindness that you or I possess nor do hens comprehend why you would expect her to remain on a nest when all her instinct from the days of the Dinosaurs to the present tells her that she needs to be out and about raising her already hatched brood.

If you force her to stay on the nest she will likely become restless and trample the whole litter to death. Only in a totally dark, quite, and cool location will a new hen mama remain still past the 23 or 24th day. And that is still short of the 4 days behind the hatching date of the first chicks. This is the reason that the Egyptians first began artificially incubating chicken eggs. The reason was so they would not be tied to the hens' timetable or predisposition but instead decide when or where they wanted their chicks to hatch, especially if they had more fertile eggs than setting hens available to brood eggs. Trust me, chickens do not see the world through the same lens that you or I do. If the last few eggs mean much to you setup some kind of hatcher to finish the job in case the hen refuses to do it.

Don't sweat a baby chicks taking a header out of a nest box. I have seen probably millions of them taking a 3 story leap from the conveyor belt in the incubation room to the sexing, vaccination, and packing floor in a commercial hatchery. If anything it seems to help more than hurt them. I do know that a baby wood duck in the wild seems to survive better if its first life experience is a 40 foot or greater fall from a natural tree cavity to the forest floor, sometimes hitting a dozen or more tree limbs, and tumbling bill over butt all the way down. I know that it is hard for some of you to watch but think of it as natural organic chick birth.

I agree with most everything you said except the part about hens being predisposed to only sit on eggs they laid themselves. A broody hen will set on just about anything you put under her. She does seem to be led by instinct to get off the nest within 24 - 36 hours after hatching begins to show her babies how to be chickens. (Even if those babies are ducks, geese, pheasants or whatever else she may have hatched!)

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I agree with most everything you said except the part about hens being predisposed to only sit on eggs they laid themselves. A broody hen will set on just about anything you put under her. She does seem to be led by instinct to get off the nest within 24 - 36 hours after hatching begins to show her babies how to be chickens. (Even if those babies are ducks, geese, pheasants or whatever else she may have hatched!)

As a young boy the privilege of gathering eggs at grand maws (to me it wasn't a chore) was my responsibility. This meant that I not only had to check out the hen house but the wood pile, corn crib, milking stalls, hay loft, feed bin, tractor shed, besides crawling under grannie's shotgun house one or two days a week. The far dark recesses of grannie's house was always good for one to two dozen eggs in as many as 5 or 6 different locations or depressions because under the floor was where the hens all took their dust baths.. Even at this from time to time a hen would come dragging in a clutch of chicks that she had incubated and hatched in a stolen nest location known only to her.

In a true free range situation hens are much more likely to lay in individual locations (not manmade nest boxes) than if they were all confined to a single coop, a run, a backyard, a hen house or even a couple of kept acres. I worried over how to word my post because hens obviously don't care whether they sit on or hatch their own eggs or the eggs of a different hen, or even the eggs of a different species. Nest boxes are chosen because they represent the best location that provides everything or maybe I should say the best thing available at the time to a hen whose instinct in choosing a nest location is to chose a good place to hatch out a clutch of eggs.

I got a laugh from the end of your post because I once hatched a clutch of wood duck eggs under a hen and the old hen had a mental breakdown when the ducklings took to the water like... well like ducks. That's one thing that a mama hen can't break or teach out of a duckling, the instinct to swim.

 

[bobbi-j]

As a young boy the privilege of gathering eggs at grand maws (to me it wasn't a chore) was my responsibility. This meant that I not only had to check out the hen house but the wood pile, corn crib, milking stalls, hay loft, feed bin, tractor shed, besides crawling under grannie's shotgun house one or two days a week. The far dark recesses of grannie's house was always good for one to two dozen eggs in as many as 5 or 6 different locations or depressions because under the floor was where the hens all took their dust baths.. Even at this from time to time a hen would come dragging in a clutch of chicks that she had incubated and hatched in a stolen nest location known only to her.

In a true free range situation hens are much more likely to lay in individual locations (not manmade nest boxes) than if they were all confined to a single coop, a run, a backyard, a hen house or even a couple of kept acres. I worried over how to word my post because hens obviously don't care whether they sit on or hatch their own eggs or the eggs of a different hen, or even the eggs of a different species. Nest boxes are chosen because they represent the best location that provides everything or maybe I should say the best thing available at the time to a hen whose instinct in choosing a nest location is to chose a good place to hatch out a clutch of eggs.

I got a laugh from the end of your post because I once hatched a clutch of wood duck eggs under a hen and the old hen had a mental breakdown when the ducklings took to the water like... well like ducks. That's one thing that a mama hen can't break or teach out of a duckling, the instinct to swim.

Poor girl!

Thanks for clearing that up. Now that I understand what you were saying, I agree completely!

 

[mrscbass]

So we lost the one baby chick that hatched, last night! this morning she was dead under momma hen! Pretty sad.
Broody is still sitting on her other eggs but get this: she was sitting on 8 other eggs yesterday but today the chick was dead (no visible signs of trauma or being pecked) and there are ONLY 6 EGGS under broody!!! I lifted her up, checked all around, she is caged so there is no chance a diff chicken got them. There are no egg shells- NOTHING!! Where would the eggs have gone? Could she have eaten them- shell and all!?!?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... Broody is still sitting on her other eggs but get this: she was sitting on 8 other eggs yesterday but today... there are ONLY 6 EGGS.... checked all around, she is caged so there is no chance a diff chicken got them. There are no egg shells- NOTHING!! Where would the eggs have gone? Could she have eaten them- shell and all!?!?

Some animals like mice will eat their own living young if it looks to mama mouse that she won't be able to raise her litter. I to have seen the same thing that you reported and lacking an egg eating snake I always blamed the hen for eating her own non-viable eggs. The calories, vitamins, and minerals in an egg all came from the hen and even though I don't like it I do find some natural poetic justice in a hen recycling her own biological resources.

 

[mrscbass]

Ok friends... We have had each if the three babies that hatched die! The first one fluffed up nice then was dead in the morning. The second was weak and didn't hatch all the way. The third hatched then was dead under momma hen next morning. We have two peeking though their shells tonight and I am so worried they will be dead in the morning!!! It's getting old.
I want to keep them with momma hen but they all die underneath her! We have two hatching now and three eggs left. Should I remove the chicks after they hatch or leave them to fair with momma?

 

[bobbi-j]

Personally, I'd leave them with their mama. If they're going to live, they'll live much better with her under somewhat natural conditions. After all, it may not be her fault. But that's just me. There are others who would take them. It could be that they're just weak and would die anyway. You just never know. Personally, I'd quit checking on them and let her do her job. Give it a day or so and then check.

 

[ironsfamilyfarm]

I just had a broody hen hatch a baby check in the nesting boxes. It was a complete surprise to me because she moved nests 3 times and each time I would transfer the eggs under her. I figured they wouldn't hatch because I thought they night have gotten too cold. ..guess not! I have never had this happen before either. How long before the baby check needs food and water? The nesting boxes are up off the ground and have a pretty high edge on the front so I'm not sure how easily the check can get out. What do I need to do? There are still 2 eggs under her that haven't hatched yet and they may not!

 

[GardengirlVT]

Looking for some answers similar to above questions. Momma hatched three chicks yesterday in coop. Will they come out from under her for food and water? How long before they get enough feathers for flight. Our current hens (auracan and silkie Cochins) fly in and out if coop.