loulou6979
In the Brooder
- Aug 27, 2015
- 23
- 22
- 49
I had a hen go broody on me so I left her to sit on the eggs. Today while cleaning out a neighboring nesting box, the hen got off of her nest. Thought no more about it because, hey every Mom needs a break now and again. I looked at her clutch of eggs, but I didn't inspect them closely, and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I closed the lid to the nesting boxes and went on about my business. 10, maybe 15 minutes passed and another hen had started making quite the commotion inside the coop. I decided for some reason to go and see if the broody hen had returned to her nest. I seen the hen that was making all of the noise as she exited the coop and proceeded to get some food. It wasn't the broody hen by the way. When I opened the lid to the nesting boxes, I seen the clutch of eggs with no mother hen, and one of the eggs was cracked open. It had almost looked as if the little chick had started the process of unzipping the shell but the hole was about 1-1 1/2 inches long and about 1/2 an inch wide. I find it hard to believe that little chick made that much progress in such a short amount of time and now wonder if the cackeling hen had something to do with it. At first I thought the little chick was dead but when I picked it up I heard it chirping and I also noticed that there was blood coming from inside the egg. Not a bunch but more than I have seen when watching chicks hatch in my incubator. I now have the baby chick inside in a make shift incubator. I'm keeping the humidity around 75% right now because of how long the egg was exposed to dry air, and I can see the baby's beak and most of it's head, so I know there is no fear of it drowning. I'm almost certain that it's too soon and that the little chick hasn't absorbed it's yolk sak all of the way. Have any of you had luck with baby chicks surviving an unexpected early hatch?
