Help with Hatching under Broody Hens, Mean Mama?

[RealEstateChick]

Hello! I am new to this chicken hatching thing. Here is our situation: On Thursday, Aug 3rd we were leaving for vacation late in the evening. This is the night that a hen (barred rock) decided she wanted to sit on eggs. She wasn't roosting with the rest of them. We normally collect a few times a day when we are home but this time we didn't. She was sitting on about 8 and wouldn't let us touch her. While we were gone through Monday, a second hen (buff orphington) joined in within a day or so of this one. The teen that we hired to check on animals was only able to collect some eggs from other boxes. Since the broodies were in the two favorite boxes, many of the newly laid eggs ended up under the mamas. We got home and realized around Wednesday that we needed to move the two mamas since the other chickens were disturbing them and laying new eggs in the same boxes. Yesterday morning, 8/25/17 the second mama (buff orphington) had an egg hatch under her. She furiously was pecking at the baby and got off her nest. She went back and was doing the same thing. We took the chick in and put her in the brooder we had set up as a back-up. Today a second one hatched and the mom seems to be accepting her so far. We are checking constantly. A few hours ago, my daughter discovered another one under mom that was partially hatched (bottom half still in shell) but it was dead. It didn't look like it had been pecked or anything. She did look squished. Should we leave the second chick or take her in with the other one in the brooder? Here is our second issue: second broody hen (barred rock) got confused at around day 14 and escaped from her separate area and went to original nesting box to sit on freshly laid eggs. I happened to be gone all day so I have no idea how long she was off the eggs. I put her back on her clutch and she has been there ever since. She is not leaving her nest at all. Several eggs are covered in poop. I am afraid to candle them and not know what i am looking at and throw out a good egg. If all of her eggs are bad, can I put the eggs from the other mama under her instead? I would love to slip the two baby chicks under her but assume I shouldn't do this unless she hatches some of her own? Looking at the calendar, it appears that some eggs won't hit day 21 until the 30th, assuming they are still viable. Help? Sorry for the length!

 

[IZZYBELLA]

Wow! First off congrats for getting your broody to hatch some eggs. It is important (as I'm sure you now know) to mark eggs that they start sitting on, because new eggs always get added if the broody stays in the coop.

Just because the buff has rejected the chicks, doesn't mean she won't come around to motherhood. I have had a broody reject her chicks, but then accept then once I removed the eggs. If you think the buff's eggs are done hatching, you could remove the eggs and try a reintroduction of the chicks. If she won't take them, I would stick them under your barred rock and see if she acccepts them. People say you need to do this at night, but I have done it in broad daylight with success. Remove the eggs currently under the rock when you do this. If you want to hatch more, stick these under your buff.

Does that make sense?

You will want to monitor the mom/baby situation closely to make sure she accepts the and shows them where the food and water is. Make sure that their nest is on ground level, and that they are protected from the other hens. (I typically move my broodies and their chicks to a large dog cage on the garage for the first few weeks.)

Good luck! It is so fun to watch them be mothers!

 

[sylviethecochin]

If she is sitting tight on the nest and making odd little clucking noises, then she may be on lockdown. Candle a few eggs and see if you can see any internal pipping. If there is some, just leave her alone.

If there is no internal pipping, and the eggs are not solid dark inside (if they are solid dark, except for the air pocket, they're about ready to hatch, and you're only going to see intermittent movement, no matter how alive they are.):

First thing you need to do is sort out the viable eggs from the dead ones. Chicks squirm in the shells when they get hit by the light. They don't like it. Candle all of them. Make marks on the ones that move. Wait six hours and do it again. Do this until you are comfortable with throwing away any seemingly inviable eggs.
Gently rinse the living poopy eggs under warm water from the tap. You will remove some blume, but the bacteria can filter through and hurt the embryo. If they're only five days from hatching, you'll be good. The poop is more of a danger than some missing blume at this point.

You may be able to add your current chicks tomorrow night, if the eggs are pipping. The hen will expect chicks, and a staggered hatch of four days isn't too bad. Don't add them during the day unless she has a chick already. She might wonder where it came from, especially as a first-time brooder, and she'll be nasty to them, if she thinks they're intruders.

 

[RealEstateChick]

Thank you for the information! Here is the update: We candled all eggs under both hens last night and only got rid of 3. We could see movement in most of the others and I even had one chirping inside the egg and then I realized she had her beak poked through the shell. I put her back with the buff orphington. This morning, the buff was off with her chick from yesterday in a grassy area and they were both content. She left the two remaining eggs in the nest, one of which is the one that had pipped last night. At first we thought it was dead but then it chirped! It is still in the shell but has unzipped. We stuck both her and the last egg under the barred rock since I am guessing that the buff is done on the nest? I hope this what the right thing to do! We will try adding the chick from the house tonight and see what happens.

 

[schmapes]

This is all very exciting and I hope you will continue to update! I hope to do this when one of mine goes broody, so I love reading about other people's experiences. In this case, it seems that it was a blessing you had two broodies together.

 

[RealEstateChick]

This is all very exciting and I hope you will continue to update! I hope to do this when one of mine goes broody, so I love reading about other people's experiences. In this case, it seems that it was a blessing you had two broodies together.

We are up to 10 that have hatched and just candled the remaining 7 eggs. There are six live chicks and I removed one bad egg. We have lost 3 so far, all partially hatched or just hatched. I am not sure what happened to each of them for sure. Of the ten, two are little black ones and the buff orphington was not kind to them. One has a large gash on her head that was bleeding. We brought both of them inside and even tried reintroducing the uninjured black one back to the hens but the buff orphington was aggressive to her so she is back inside. The two mamas are fine with the other 8, all of which are yellow or some version of that. We have the last 6 eggs inside under the heat lamp with a wet towel since the hens don't seem interested in sitting on the eggs anymore. The last one that died was today and it was found outside the box. Thank you for all of the help from everyone so far. I will post another update when we are all done. It has been a week of this since our first one hatched last Thursday!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... This is the night that a hen (barred rock) decided she wanted to sit on eggs.....this time we didn't. She was sitting on about 8 and wouldn't let us touch her..... a second hen.... joined in within a day or so of this one. The teen that we hired to check on animals was only able to collect some eggs from other boxes. Since the broodies were in the two favorite boxes, many of the newly laid eggs ended up under the mamas... other chickens were disturbing them and laying new eggs in the same boxes. Yesterday morning, 8/25/17 the second mama (buff orphington) had an egg hatch under her. She furiously was pecking at the baby and got off her nest. She went back and was doing the same thing. We took the chick in and put her in the brooder we had set up as a back-up. Today a second one hatched and the mom seems to be accepting her so far. We are checking constantly. A few hours ago, my daughter discovered another one under mom that was partially hatched (bottom half still in shell) but it was dead. It didn't look like it had been pecked or anything. She did look squished. Should we leave the second chick or take her in with the other one in the brooder? Here is our second issue: second broody hen ....got confused ....and escaped from her separate area and went to original nesting box to sit on freshly laid eggs..... I put her back on her clutch and she has been there ever since..... several eggs are covered in poop.... I would love to slip the two baby chicks under her but assume I shouldn't do this unless she hatches some of her own? Looking at the calendar, it appears that some eggs won't hit day 21 until the 30th, assuming they are still viable. Help? Sorry for the length!

Here we have a good argument against staggered hatching. At some time both brooding hens will realize that they have hatched an egg and according to a chickens' math skills one chick is as good as a hundred and your brood hen will abandon the rest of her eggs to be a good mommy to her or to her hen companion's living chick.

 

[IZZYBELLA]

Congratulations!! That is a great number of chicks! Always sad when some get rejected, but once they are a few weeks you will be able to integrate everyone. Hope the injured one heals! Those head pecks from broodies are no joke!

 

[RealEstateChick]

Here we have a good argument against staggered hatching. At some time both brooding hens will realize that they have hatched an egg and according to a chickens' math skills one chick is as good as a hundred and your brood hen will abandon the rest of her eggs to be a good mommy to her or to her hen companion's living chick.

As this was a first time for us (and our chickens), we were clueless. We learned a lot in the process and would definitely do things differently next time. We actually had some chicks hatch more than a week after the first. It was sad to lose some but we have learned in the process, for sure!

 

[RealEstateChick]

Congratulations!! That is a great number of chicks! Always sad when some get rejected, but once they are a few weeks you will be able to integrate everyone. Hope the injured one heals! Those head pecks from broodies are no joke!

Yes, the Buff Orphington was not being nice. We tried multiple times to bring the other black one back out but she/he was rejected every time. We found a home for those two today!