Hen pecking hole in hatching egg - HELP!

[Vintage Chick]

My broody Buff, "Daisy" has been sitting in her nesting box since the 1st of May. Despite DAILY, REPEATED efforts of all sorts, I finally decided to let her have some fertilized eggs. July 6, I put 5 under her. About 10 days in, one of the eggs was cracked on the floor. Yesterday, my daughter found a baby chick (looked perfectly formed) on the floor dead. The egg shell was completely gone, and there was blood on Daisy's beak.
Today, 2 more eggs started hatching. As we set up chairs to do a "hatch-watch", Daisy fluffed up, and pecked a hole about the size of a dime into one of the egg shells. Previous to that, the chick was moving around, but since the hole-pecking, we see no movement.
Do I have a murderer on my hands? What's the deal with Daisy? Do I move the remaining 2 eggs from her to keep her from pecking them? Is it normal for a hen to "help" with the hatch?
I have searched for almost 2 hours, and cannot find anything about this. I see threads about egg-eating, but nothing about "while hatching".

HELP!

 

[Majd]

Mmm... might be a calcium deficiency the hen is suffering from and trying to eat the egg shells to reload the calcium level in her body... as lots of hens eat some of the egg shells after the hatch but this one looks like she's in a hurry.... so it's good to keep watching her and preventing her from eating more.... but it's gonna be a long wait.. so if you have an incubator quickly set it and let them hatch safely in it and let her sit on fake eggs if you have or put a fresh egg or tow to keep her on the nest... then if the chicks hatch out fine put the under her as soon as possible and see if she accepts them.... if so it's done if she pecks them or ignore them you have to put them in a brooder and raose them yourself... that's all what I can say right now... hope everything goes well with no more losses... keep us updated...
Majd

 

[salkxsj]

also you might try . getting those plastic eggs and putting hot mustard in side and in about two weeks or less your problem will be gone.

 

[Vintage Chick]

Here's how the saga played out
since my post, and the hole-pecking murder incident...

Within hours after the pecking, Daisy fluffed up and stomped on one of the two remaining eggs - just enough to crush the shell, but not destroy the membrane. My daughter scooped up the two eggs and sat diligently with one in each hand, while I prepared an indoor brooder box. We finished all of that about 6:30pm. About 4:30am, I heard LOUD chirping. The stomped egg chick just hatched! A beautiful, perfectly formed chick (daddy was a barred rock, mom was a white leghorn). Then at 10:30 am, it took only TEN MINUTES for chick #2 to hatch from not even a crack to fully out-of-the-shell. (barred daddy, americana mom). I'm happy to report that both are doing very well!!!

As for Daisy, I had had it! Almost 3 months of broodiness, and I literally picked her up of of the box, told her "ENOUGH", and put her in the yard. (It's not like I hadn't done that 125 times already.) But I guess she was done being broody! Currently, she is molting and looks terrible - I actually feel sorry for her. Her comb is getting color though, and she's getting along with everyone else. Guess she just won't make for a good momma!

Here are the two babies (see the yellow belly from the Americana?) My daughter "hypnotized" them for this photo. Too funny!

H

 

[Jennifer Grant]

I have a few wild game chickens that have been setting. I want out this morning and one of the other hen in our pen was pecking the egg. I could see and hear the baby chick, but am not aure what the hen was doing. First time to have chickens hatch out eggs. Any suggestions?

 

[Vintage Chick]

After what we experienced, I would separate the hen and the eggs immediately! Daisy ended up killing 3 that way, and I ended up with 2 ONLY because I rescued them from her! I set up a brooder box with a heat lamp and set the temperature to 96-100 degrees. The girls hatched out just fine! I read somewhere that not many hens do that, but I sure had one that did.

 

[Jennifer Grant]

Thank you so much, for the advice. I set up a barrier between the ones that are setting and the others. I just do not know enough