I think I messed up...HELP!

[GemmaGA]

So I have a few hens that are broody, and have had one egg hatch so far out of the clutch the ladies are 'sharing'. Today, I noticed another chick had pipped and in my excitement decided to help the chick out. The hen that was sitting on it won't go back on the nest and is ignoring the peeps from the chick- I tried to put her back on the nest and she freaked out (she's kind of a spaz anyway), so I put it under the other broody to finish hatching. It emerged on it's own...now what??? Will the broody hen do what needs to be done? My first chick that hatched with a broody was earlier this week, and this is the first time since I got my chickens as babies a year ago we've had one hatch. I probably messed up, and now I don't know what to do! Help!!

I have a total of 7 hens, and they are all different breeds. I just want the baby and broody to imprint on each other so it will have a momma to take care of it

Edit: I should also mention the baby still looks wet and was not up and moving around, just peeping and whatnot. I hope I did not intervene and kill my baby

 

[MysteryChicken]

So I have a few hens that are broody, and have had one egg hatch so far out of the clutch the ladies are 'sharing'. Today, I noticed another chick had pipped and in my excitement decided to help the chick out. The hen that was sitting on it won't go back on the nest and is ignoring the peeps from the chick- I tried to put her back on the nest and she freaked out (she's kind of a spaz anyway), so I put it under the other broody to finish hatching. It emerged on it's own...now what??? Will the broody hen do what needs to be done? My first chick that hatched with a broody was earlier this week, and this is the first time since I got my chickens as babies a year ago we've had one hatch. I probably messed up, and now I don't know what to do! Help!!

I have a total of 7 hens, and they are all different breeds. I just want the baby and broody to imprint on each other so it will have a momma to take care of it

Edit: I should also mention the baby still looks wet and was not up and moving around, just peeping and whatnot. I hope I did not intervene and kill my baby

When a chick pips, it doesn't need help, unless it's been 24-48 hours since the pip, & no progress has been made by the chick.

If a chick pips, it's most likely not ready to hatch yet, they're still absorbing their yolk, & blood. Helping a chick too soon can kill a chick.

Do you have an incubator, or a brooder as backup?

 

[GemmaGA]

When a chick pips, it doesn't need help, unless it's been 24-48 hours since the pip, & no progress has been made by the chick.

If a chick pips, it's most likely not ready to hatch yet, they're still absorbing their yolk, & blood. Helping a chick too soon can kill a chick.

Do you have an incubator, or a brooder as backup?

@MysteryChicken
No I don't have an incubator or brooder. We wanted to let the broody hens hatch them. The broody seems to be tending to it just fine so far, it is under her and moving around and peeping etc. (I just went down to check)

This is the first time hatching any chicks, and I realize now that I have no business interfering with mother nature, but I just hope to do whatever I can to help the baby thrive. I didn't mess with the first chick that hatched, I was just so excited that we had another one hatching...

 

[MysteryChicken]

@MysteryChicken
No I don't have an incubator or brooder. We wanted to let the broody hens hatch them. The broody seems to be tending to it just fine so far, it is under her and moving around and peeping etc. (I just went down to check)

This is the first time hatching any chicks, and I realize now that I have no business interfering with mother nature, but I just hope to do whatever I can to help the baby thrive. I didn't mess with the first chick that hatched, I was just so excited that we had another one hatching...

Should always have those as backup incase mommy hen abandons the nest early.

My first time hatching anything was with a broody hen. But I had a brooder handy at least.

 

[Kellyjenny]

Remember sit on your hands.

 

[GemmaGA]

We've been talking about getting a brooder but haven't done it yet, but it sounds like I should probably make a plan to get one.

Thanks. Do you think the broody will 'adopt' the baby? Should I take it out and take care of it myself like I would day old chicks from a hatchery etc?

@Kellyjenny I will absolutely do that next time....

 

[Ridgerunner]

The broody seems to be tending to it just fine so far, it is under her and moving around and peeping etc

Then leave them alone and let nature take its course. Use this as a learning experience. Observe what is going on and make decisions on what you see, but don't be real quick to get involved.

Next time a hen goes broody and you want her to hatch eggs, collect all the eggs you want her to hatch, mark them, and start them all at the same time. It sounds like you are letting her hatch with the flock. If you do that instead of isolating her, check under her each day after the others have all laid and remove any that don't belong. That's why you mark them, so you know which belong.

Other than removing eggs that don't belong every day, I trust my broody hens and leave them alone. I let them take care of themselves, hatching the eggs, and bringing the chicks off of the nest. I find the less I interfere the less harm I do. There are others on this forum that can't keep form meddling with the broody. Usually they do OK too but that's not the way I approach it. I have caused harm by interfering.

 

[LaFleche]

Just leave them alone, they know what to do.

You can put a shallow dish with some chick feed near the broody the next day, but don't mess and stay away.

 

[GemmaGA]

Thanks everyone. Lots of lessons learned in this experience for sure.

 

[GemmaGA]

So, thought I would update this thread to expand on my 1st hatch adventure....

Chick #1 - Uno - is about 2 1/2 weeks old now, thriving and doing well. Starting to think it may be a roo, but probably too soon to tell. I believe it to be a cross between my Black/Blue Splash Cochin Bantam Roo, Scuba and one of my Silver Spangled Hamburg hens. The only other hen that I have that lays white eggs (which Uno hatched from) is my Gold Laced Polish, Muppet (the MOST spastic, insane chicken...ever btw.) The chick is mostly black with some white on it's chest and belly with feathered feet and a single comb.

Chick #2 hatched successfully, however after a few days, it appears that one of the other chickens killed it - found it dead in the run with an eyeball pecked out.

Chick #3 - hatched but did not survive, found it in the nesting box where it hatched

Chick #4 - hatched and survived for almost a week, then seemed to disappear into thin air. Still have no clue what happened to this chick.

After this 'adventure' - I learned a lot as a newbie chicken keeper, having only had chickens for a little over a year at this point. I would do many things differently next time if I decide to hatch my own eggs.

Things I learned:

1. Having multiple broody hens trying to sit on eggs at the same time is a huge pain in the rear.
2. Having multiple broody hens trying to sit on the SAME eggs at the SAME time is an even bigger pain in the rear.
3. It's very important to mark your eggs that you want to hatch, or it becomes difficult to track how long hens have been sitting and to know what eggs should be hatching at certain times. Trying to figure out what might hatch when was chaos because I did not mark the eggs initially and ended up with two hens sitting on a total of 14 eggs in the same nesting box....drama to say the least.
4. Candle the eggs early, and often. Although at one point the ladies were sitting on 14 eggs, I finally candled all of them and got rid of the ones that did not seem to be viable and ended up with only 6 for the broodies to try to hatch. (lots of wasted eggs)
5. Don't try to hatch your own eggs without a plan (or without an incubator, or brooder pen as backup). I did not have a plan, or even a backup plan - and thought I would just let nature take it's course. I won't do that again.

I am by far no chicken expert, and I probably did a lot of things wrong, but I also learned a lot of things that I did not know/realize before, and I have an adorable baby chick that came from my own flock that seems to be growing and thriving - so I must have done at least one or two things right along the way (though the credit probably goes to the momma hens in this case!).

I don't think I will try to have such an adventure again any time soon Maybe in a couple years we will try again.