HELP! Hen won't get off her chick!

[charliebee]

Hi there,
My Pekin Bantam 'Shirley' went seriously broody a while back. I tried really hard to break her broodiness but couldn't so bought her some eggs to sit on. To cut a long story short we only ended up with one egg which successfully hatched yesterday afternoon. The chick looks good and well but I'm not convinced Shirley knows what to do, she seems to be sitting tight on the chick and not showing it food and water! That's been 24 hours now. Should I intervene or will it still happen? Thanks, C

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi there,
My Pekin Bantam 'Shirley' went seriously broody a while back. I tried really hard to break her broodiness but couldn't so bought her some eggs to sit on. To cut a long story short we only ended up with one egg which successfully hatched yesterday afternoon. The chick looks good and well but I'm not convinced Shirley knows what to do, she seems to be sitting tight on the chick and not showing it food and water! That's been 24 hours now. Should I intervene or will it still happen? Thanks, C

She's doing what she should be. She'll show it.

 

[bobbi-j]

Yep. Chickens know far more about being chickens than we do. If they didn't know how to hatch and raise babies, there wouldn't be any more chickens. They instinctively know to wait a day or so to give the other eggs a chance to hatch.