HELP!! Dead chicks under broody hen!

[labsani]

Hi everyone,

I am pretty new to raising chickens and need some advice. I have previously had a hen hatch and raise eggs and all went 100% as planned.

My RIR has been sitting on 12 eggs and they were due to hatch today (21 days). I have been on holidays for the last 7 days and have had a neighbour checking in on my chickens and broody hen which is in a separate pen to the others.

When I arrived this afternoon, I ran straight down to the coop only to find a dead chick, yellow and fluffy on the ramp which leads from the water up to the nesting box. Shocked I moved the broody hen of the eggs only to find another wet looking dead chick underneath her

I am not sure on what to do here as I am too scared to loose all the eggs if she is killing them? I originally started with 15 eggs underneath her (she is a first time broody) as my neighbour gave me her fertile eggs. Over the 21 days there have been some crushed (eaten?) eggs under her, which i have cleaned up and removed. I just assumed that maybe there were too many and they cracked by accident? When I left there were 12 eggs under her, now there are only 9, which doesn't add up as there was only 2 dead chicks...

I have removed the eggs from her and placed in a cardboard box with hay underneath and a 25W bulb to keep them warm. Will this be enough? Should I have left them with her and risked it? I have placed 6 non fertile eggs underneath her as she is still happy sitting on them in the hope that I could place the hatched chicks underneath her and monitor her reaction?

Is there any advice on what I should be doing?

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[chooks4life]

Hi everyone,

I am pretty new to raising chickens and need some advice. I have previously had a hen hatch and raise eggs and all went 100% as planned.

My RIR has been sitting on 12 eggs and they were due to hatch today (21 days). I have been on holidays for the last 7 days and have had a neighbour checking in on my chickens and broody hen which is in a separate pen to the others.

When I arrived this afternoon, I ran straight down to the coop only to find a dead chick, yellow and fluffy on the ramp which leads from the water up to the nesting box. Shocked I moved the broody hen of the eggs only to find another wet looking dead chick underneath her

Generally it's a safe bet the hen is at fault BUT --- can you access the corpses? Even if you have to dig them up? If so, check the back of the head and neck. Deficiency of some nutrients can cause rapid death soon after or even while hatching; if it's a B vitamin deficiency chances are you will see odema, watery swellings under the skin, on the back of the head and maybe neck. If they're puffy it's not her fault, almost certainly.... Does she have any live ones?

I am not sure on what to do here as I am too scared to loose all the eggs if she is killing them? I originally started with 15 eggs underneath her (she is a first time broody) as my neighbour gave me her fertile eggs. Over the 21 days there have been some crushed (eaten?) eggs under her, which i have cleaned up and removed. I just assumed that maybe there were too many and they cracked by accident? When I left there were 12 eggs under her, now there are only 9, which doesn't add up as there was only 2 dead chicks...

She, or others, might have eaten them. Have the other hens been shoving into her nest space? Is she bullied by any other hens? Did you check the eggs with a torch to see how strong the shells were? Setting weak shelled eggs is basically asking for breaks while brooding, especially late-term. Also, if she was given too many to cover properly, she may have tried to secure them all under herself as a good broody should, but with too many eggs they could have ended up piled on top of each other, and broken by that.

I have removed the eggs from her and placed in a cardboard box with hay underneath and a 25W bulb to keep them warm. Will this be enough?

Doubtful. Brooding eggs isn't much of a slapstick type science, better to know what you're doing than hazard a guess at it. I've never artificially brooded eggs so don't know if your method will work, I know some people successfully use something similar, but it depends on distance from the bulb and a lot of things like that which I can't account for from your description, sorry.

Should I have left them with her and risked it?

I would have let one or two more hatch under her myself, and watched how it goes. Until that happens you won't ever know if it's her fault or not. She is the surest way to hatch them right now, you may lose them trying to use the lightbulb to heat them.

I have placed 6 non fertile eggs underneath her as she is still happy sitting on them in the hope that I could place the hatched chicks underneath her and monitor her reaction?

You can try that, if they hatch. I'd let them hatch under her though, many hens absolutely will not tolerate introduced chicks. They have a different tone to their peeping while they hatch and naturally the hen bonds to them by sound as they hatch, not after. After they've hatched and dried they make a different sound and many hens will not take them after that.

Is there any advice on what I should be doing?

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Good luck with it.

 

[labsani]

Thanks @chooks4life . My husband threw the corpses away and the bins went out tonight so I won't be able to check them I should have done it but was too upset at the time and didn't want my kids to see.

Quote:
She and the eggs are in a separate coop so if someone did eat them it would have to be her! I just think its strange that one was fully fluffy and yellow, dead on the ramp, wile the other was still wet and dead underneath her...

 

[chooks4life]

Rats and other predators are another possibility. Many are bold enough to go straight under a hen and take babies. It's quite often out of the blue too, it never happens till it happens.

Can't prove what's happening without risking more chicks, unfortunately.

Good luck.