found another chicken on friends property! she must have been hiding for a month :( she has one egg

[chem]

hello everyone

i will try to make this as short and to the point as possible. if anyone needs background info please check my other thread from yesterday explaining what has been going on. basically i have been chicken sitting for a friend. there was an emergency and i saved one baby chick. i go back last night to try and find the other grown chickens but they still are no where to be found. my partner walked into the very large coop and thought she saw a dead raven. so she walked up to it and touched it. well it slightly moved and made a little chicken noise! apparently there was another hen we have never seen! we were never told by our friends that this hen even existed otherwise we would have been checking on her too! i have never seen her come out of the coop. she was obviously very weak and probably traumatized by what happened the previous day.
i am a new chicken mommy, i have 5 chicks of my own that are 5 weeks old. i now have 6 chicks since i rescued the baby i found on my friends land. i will not give this baby back. it has happily adjusted to my baby flock. but now i have this older hen that i rescued from my friends coop. i have NEVER seen this chicken before on my friends property. i didnt even know she existed. i pulled her out of the coop and she did not put up a fight. she just made small sounds. i put her in a crate for transportation to my house and i looked where she was laying and she was laying on one egg. i grabbed the egg and brought it with me, keeping it warm on the ride home. for lack of experience and lack of knowing what to do with this hen i took her and her egg and put them in my brooder. my chicks now live outdoors so they no longer use it. i gave her plenty of food and water in there. i just checked on her and she was sitting on her egg. i took a few pics to show everyone. she makes small noises and walks like normal so im not sure the extent of trauma or weakness. how long should i keep her in my brooder away from my baby chicks? how do i integrate them? should i built her a separate coop/run and not put her in with my chicks? im sorry for all the questions. i am new at this and i never thought that this chicken math i read all about would happen to me right away and under such extreme circumstances. should i leave her egg with her? she obviously wants it. i am not sure if there is a baby in that egg. this is so confusing. i want to do it right. i am going to work on building her a coop/.run of her own today. i will have it optional to connect to my baby chicks. what is the proper thing to do for her? should i leave her in my brooder for another night? she is a very sweet girl. her name is liza here is a picture of her and her egg in my brooder. if anyone can tell me her breed i would also appreciate that. thank you all for your time!

 

[Chickenaddict]

Liza is broody which is why she is weak and not fighting to take off. You can candle the egg in a dark room with a flashlight to find out if the egg is good. You will see veining or the egg may appear to be very dark with a large air space at the top of the egg, you may see movement in the egg depending on how far into the incubation it is. She appears to be a polish mix of some sort with her cute little crest altho it's kind of hard to tell. Just make sure she is eating/drinkng and she should be just fine. Keep her in that brooder until after her chick hatches, maybe a few weeks after that IF the egg is good. If it isn't there is a good chance she may take your existing chicks in as her own depending on their age.

 

[chem]

thank you chickenaddict!

ok im going to go test the egg right now. if there isnt a chick in the egg i might try to put her in with my babies? my chicks are about 5 weeks old. maybe 5 1/2 weeks old. now the one chick i saved is supposedly around 6-7 weeks old and that chick came from the same place as liza. i dont know if its lizas baby or not. i dont know what breed the baby is. do you think my chicks are still young enough to look at her as a mother figure? also, is there a trick or tip to getting her to eat and drink more. i put the food and water near her in my brooder but something tells me she isnt eating and drinking...

thank you so much for your help!

 

[Chickenaddict]

No Problem! Good luck on the egg

Sounds like she is mama to the younger chick you found. She may or may not take them in but it seems like she is in mama mode so she just might. If you happen to try it make sure you watch her with them for a long time before you trust her alone with them. You could try to make her some scrambled or hard boiled eggs to entice her to eat some more but its pretty normal for broody hens to sluff off on the eating and drinking when they are sitting on an egg. Keep us posted

 

[chem]

hi rachel

ok well i think the egg was fertilized. i just took as flashlight to it and half the egg was dark and the top half was empty. you could feel the weight on the side of the egg that was dark too. i dont know if the baby inside the egg is alive or not. oh god i hope its alright. im super nervous now... i didnt see anything more around inside the egg. it was just dark on one half and when i flipped the egg upside down it didnt move. but one end is def empty like open air like you mentioned. is she rotating the egg herself? oh man im so nervous... this poor chicken has already been through enough and i just want her baby to be alright. my brooder is really small. it was the only place i had to put her when i brought her home. do you think it is safe enough for me to build her a little coop/run out in the yard so she can be alone and have the chance to walk around a little and still get sun light? i need to do something for her since that brooder is so tiny. but on the positive side of things i peeked in on her today in the guest bedroom (thats where the brooder is) and i caught her drinking and eating. that made me happy since i know she needed to eat and drink. do you think it is possible for me to try and get a picture of her egg with the flashlight to show you? thank you so much for your support!

ally

 

[Chickenaddict]

You could certainly try to take a pic of the candled egg but from what you explained to me it sure sounds like there is a baby in there getting ready to pop out soon. Yep mama rotates the egg on her own I would smell the egg just to see if it smells like there is something dead in there, if you don't smell any funky odor coming from the egg it is probably still good. Another thing you can do is put the egg up to your ear and listen for the cheep or a tap on the shell, that would mean the baby is trying to pip. When its at the late stage of incubation its really hard to see any movement inside the egg. You sure could build her a little coop or something bigger than where she is at to give more room to stretch out but mine always preferred to hatch in a small secluded nest until a day after the babies are born then they venture out.

I know you want the baby to be ok but in the event it doesn't work out at least you saved that adorable hen! I am sure everything will work out just fine, just take a deep breath and relax

You can do this

 

[chem]

hi rachel, im sorry its taken so long to update you! i have been non-stop busy for days now it seems. liza is doing awesome! the egg didnt make it but liza sure did. she appears to have 100% of her energy back and she eats/drinks like a normal hen of her size. she also makes the cutest noises lol i have heard some hens make similar noises but she is a real trip to listen to! she is also so very friendly. she loves to be held and touched. she would be content just hanging out on my lap all day if she could. i also figured out she was a black crested polish. i love her hairdo and im going to try and get another (maybe white crested).

oh i went to the feed store yesterday and they had baby ducks/geese! what an experience that was! as soon as i reached my hand in to pat them they all came running and tried to scale my arm. not only was it so cute but they had tiny little wings that did not seem to be portioned to their bodies lol i contemplated getting one but i dont want my chickens to get jealous.

i hope you are blessed with a great day!!!

 

[Chickenaddict]

Awww thank you for the update! You sound just like a natural! Those baby ducks and geese sensed that too! I am sooo glad she pulled thru for you! Have a happy easter and give Liza a big hug from me

 

[PtldChick]

What color is her skin? She might be a silkie mix with that smaller crest. Silkies are notoriously broody, too. The comb doesn' t look right for a pure polish, Liza is likely some sort of mix.

She's a cute find, though, good luck!

Leanne