HELP! MY EGG IS CHEEPING!

[shalynnbrothers]

My husband and I collected (stole) eggs yesterday from our bantam coop. We currently have two broody bantam cochins and none of our hens in this coop are laying in their nesting boxes, they're laying in the furthest back corner of the coop (most difficult spot for us to collect). Well yesterday, after collecting, one of our eggs started chirping. I've never had this happen before. I panic, start crying because I'm a hormonal pregnant mama myself, and run the egg back out to the coop and put it back under the two broody mamas (I'm not sure whose egg it is). What do I do now!?!?

We've raised chicks in a brooder in the house before but we've neverrrrr hatched our own or allowed a broody mama to raise a baby. I REALLY do not want to take the baby from the two broody girls. Since it's just one, I'd hate to raise it all alone in the house. However, we do not have electricity in our coop and there are 4 other hens and 1 silkie roo in that coop with the 2 broody mamas and baby and I'm terrified that the others could hurt the baby.

The best situation would be for the mamas to raise it in the coop as apart of the flock if possible. But I can try to come up with a small separate set up in the house for one mom and the baby if I absolutely have to. I just worry about reintroducing the mama and baby back into the flock later and also don't know which mama I'd choose to mother it.

OMG! UPDATE! As I was in the middle of typing this, my husband just texted me "WE HAVE A BABY CHICK!" It hatched! And it's the cutest little baby everrrr!

HELPPPPP!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

First thing is to candle those other eggs quick. They may have chicks, and that will definitely kill your appetite when you got make breakfast.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

As far as the chick that hatched, mama will take care of it.

 

[shalynnbrothers]

Really? It'll be okay in there? Ugh, I really hope so! So far both cochin mamas are being SUPER sweet and protective of it. We bought the baby chick food to keep inside the coop near them with some water. We live in Ramona, CA, it's been in the 60's during the day and 40's at night. The mamas will be able to keep the chick as warm as it needs?

I noticed our black tailed japanese and polish hens both seemed very curious about what's going on in that corner. One of my broody mamas is higher in the pecking order, the other isn't. The higher up mama chased down the polish and gave her an aggressive warning to stay away this morning. The black tailed japenese pecked the lower ranking mama on the head a couple times and she didn't do anything other than hold firm to keeping baby warm.

As for the other eggs... there's a couple fertilized ones but they're still just yolks. I think that one egg was hidden in there for awhile and we obviously must have missed it.

What are your thoughts on buying 1 more chick from the store to be raised with the other baby. Also that way each mama would have a baby to care for. Good or bad idea?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Yes, 99% of the time I let my broodies raise my chicks, as long as I have one available. I have never had an issue with the rest of my chickens. My broodies are bantams but will still attack any other chick that comes too close. My only problem birds are my turkeys and sometimes my guineas but if you don't have those then hopefully you won't have any issues as long as you don't have any very aggressive birds (RIRs are sort of known for being mean).

Getting another chick might be a good idea. One of the first things I thought of with there only being one chick is if they decide to fight over it they might hurt it. If you can get another chick or two in the next day or two, that would help with that. The very first chicks I hatched (just last March) were raised by two broodies working together, which was great because then you have twice as many eyes and beaks keeping them safe.

ETA its been in the 20's here at night and my four standard size chicks are doing very well with only a japanese bantam to keep them warm. They just hit 2 weeks old on Saturday.

 

[shalynnbrothers]

Oh, this is such good news! We'll try it out then. We don't have any turkeys of RIRs so we're good there.

Our local feed store is getting new chicks tomorrow so we may get one more to be raised with this little one.

Oh wow, that's wonderful to hear! I can relax a little lol. Thank you so much for all your help