Help! My hen has laid her eggs too high and now they may be hatching!

[Sterling Silkie]

Hi, Okay this may seem a stupid question, but this is my very first time that I have a hen who has laid her eggs and is sitting on them the full term. I think maybe that they may be hatched under her, or will be... maybe in the next day or two? The problem is she has laid her eggs up high on top of a raised double storey rabbit hutch. So effectively she is on the roof of this hatch in a disused wooden bread bin! She flies up to it as it is so high, 5', and now I am wondering whether I should put the bread bin with her in it onto the floor or at least lower down? Or should I not disturb her yet while the hatching process may be underway? When is a good time to move her and her possible chicks? She shares the coop with eleven other bantams. They all have their favourite roosting areas. I am concerned that her chicks, (if they have hatched), will fall off the roof when they venture out.

 

[nuthatched]

Can you screen in that area she's in like a fence? I'm not sure what to do in the middle of hatching, I suppose you could wait and move her nest down to the floor or inside the hutch after she's done and block the top.

 

[MLG1900]

Are you able to candle the eggs when she is off the nest? I would only move the whole bin if they are starting to hatch. She is less likely to get off her egg. I had to move two hens a few weeks ago. The one hen was moved to a secure spot with her whole nest box and stayed put. The second hen, I could not move the nest box and until I blocked her in with vinyl netting, she kept going back to the old nest box even though her eggs were gone. After I blocked her in, she settled on her eggs and hatched them.

 

[JubileeFarmer]

With both of my broodies I left them in the nest box (about 1 foot off the ground) until some of the eggs had hatched and then moved the broody, chicks, and unhatched eggs to a dog crate on the floor. Broodies occassionally abandon eggs but once they hatch her instinct is to stay with the chicks. You can wait until they all hatch if you prefer.

That said, there is one person who posts on BYC who said that her hens will hatch chicks in a 10" hay loft and then when they are ready she calls for them to jump down. I think that newly hatched chicks are so light weight that they can fall from that distance without injury.

 

[Sterling Silkie]

Thank you all for your advice. I’ll keep my eye on her. I might be able to put a temporary fence around the top, but I have a feeling she won’t have a successful hatch this time, she is very green and already the one that pipped has had it’s shell excavated and has vanished. The hen, Mushroom, looks quite pleased with herself. I am mortified! I am a bit too sentimental for this kind of thing. She stood up and there was not a shred of the hatchling about!