Hen decided she's done being broody with 5 eggs left to hatch

[Knitwit9916]

We have a silkie who has been doing great sitting on the nest. We have her inside in a giant dog crate with hay and straw, food and water. She has successfully hatched out 5 eggs and, this morning, with 5 left to go she decided that she is done sitting on the nest. We are frantically putting together a diy incubator, but do these eggs have a chance?

 

[BuffinsTheCat28]

Depends on how long they were left alone. If they are older than five days, you can try candling to see if they're still alive.

 

[Knitwit9916]

She has been off and on the nest for the last 2 hours. These eggs were a little "younger" than the ones that hatched out a couple of days ago (lesson learned, we won't do that again). There is one that is "overdue" that we figure isn't viable, and 5 that are due to hatch in a couple of days. She moved the eggs to a new spot this morning and squawked and now has been off and on the new nest.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is a problem with a staggered hatch, at some point the hen has to decide if she is going to take the chicks already hatched off of the nest to find food or water or wait on the later ones. Practically every hen chooses to take care of the hatched ones. As you said, lesson learned.

If you can keep those eggs warm, say 97 to 100 F, they have a chance. Increasing the humidity could help too. It's worth a try, but don't overheat them.

 

[jessejeanne]

Hi there, my hen did the same thing. I already lost 3 of the 5 eggs that were left since I was probably too late discovering it... I'm still trying for the other two. I'm currently using a heat lamp and a water sprayer. Wishing a lot of luck and God bless for your babies over there!

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I always give a broody hen eggs that I have chosen, and so I know they all began incubating at the same time. Still, I sometimes see a fairly wide range of hatch times. Usually all viable eggs hatch within a twelve hour span, but occasionally there are up to 36-48 hours between hatches. In addition, I have an otherwise excellent broody hen that abandons her unhatched eggs after 4-5 chicks have hatched. Once she did this even though two remaining eggs had already externally pipped! I'm pretty certain her strong opinion is that four or five kids is plenty.

I solved the nest abandonment problem by removing early-hatched chicks after they have dried and found their feet. I set up a temporary indoor brooder complete with heat, food and water, same as with feed store chicks. I always try to leave the latest-hatched chick with the broody and her remaining eggs, then return all chicks to her at night after all eggs have hatched. I have found this approach keeps broodies on the nest, especially since chicks grow increasingly restless after their first 24.hours or so. I know you said you will prevent staggered egg incubations in the future. But hatches are occasionally staggered despite our best plans, so I wanted to mention the above as a future solution.