Help with broody hens

[midget_farms]

Fire up the incubator. If they chill at this point they will be in trouble.

I think they are hatching though. Look around real close for the chicks. I bet they are there

 

[midget_farms]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Amq5jgj0FmM/T5hTqYuW6GI/AAAAAAAAAbE/ossLzTOJy2Y/s1600/snowy+egret+egg.jpg

Does your empty she'll look like this?

 

[Anne Katherine]

I have checked and there are no chicks. The egg looks simaler to the one in the pic but there is only red and the hole is much smaller. I hate to say this but is there any reason she would kill the chick?

 

[Anne Katherine]

Also there was a small amountof yolk too.

 

[lazy gardener]

How big exactly was the hole? Bigger than a nickel, or bigger than a quarter? I have to wonder if you have a rat.

 

[Anne Katherine]

About the size of a silver dollar. But would a hen let a rat get to her eggs. Her food and water is right there and she almost never leaves the nest.

 

[lazy gardener]

Rats can be pretty brazen. Someone on BYC had footage showing rats climbing all over the roosts and chickens. It's possible.

 

[lazy gardener]

Rats can be pretty brazen. Someone on BYC had footage showing rats climbing all over the roosts and chickens. It's possible.

 

[midget_farms]

Oh that's not good.

Rats will eat eggs & maybe chicks.

If it were me I'd bring them into the incubator & start setting traps.

Put a couple fresh eggs under the girls to keep them on the nest. Once you have chicks you can slip them under the hens & take the dummy eggs

 

[Anne Katherine]

I do not have an incubator. There have been no more eggshell problems really though so that is good news. Unfortunately though another hen got into one of the nests and kicked the other hen off. The impostor was a banty so it could not cover all the eggs though and I think we lost about a third of our eggs as they were ice cold. Prayers please that the chicks will make it to full term!