Help - Hen Just Hatched Chicks

[kodster]

I'm sure that you have discovered that all is fine, by now. Chicks can survive without food or water for 72 hours, as they live off the yolk that they absorbed in the last 3 days of incubation. Normal process. Hens DON'T provide food and water to them. She shows them how to find it on their own, but they don't get it from mama.

 

[Shahnaz13]

No, absolutely not. Don't take the eggs away! She will care for ALL her babies but it is imperative that they have food and water (a very low container so the babies can't drown but drink) "at their doorstep" so to speak - I mean inside the crate because they are much to young to hop in and out (if that is even possible for them).

 

[Shahnaz13]

I move my hen and chicks to a pen on the ground with food and shallow water for them. The hen should be showing them how to scratch around. If the other eggs are a lot younger than the hatchlings, they should be removed so the hen can tend to her chicks.

We had pheasants eggs with different mothers and the babies hatched up to 2 weeks apart. Chicken mom Fluffy accepted them all and cared for the big and tiny ones.