momma hen eating her chicks?

[Bluebelle7]

last year our Paloma was repeatedly going broody, and was very hard to get her stop. It was her 1st season of laying and I thought I will wait till this year to give her some fertile eggs to hatch. I got her 9 Belgian d'Uccle that I paid fortune for, and they are due to hatch now - day 21 is tomorrow. I checked under her this morning and there was one egg with cracked shell; I looked closely and while the shell was cracked all over, the membrane was intact and very strong. I left it so not to disturb her, but at lunch time I went for another peep and the cracked egg is gone, shell and all Wish I had an incubator. The other 8 are still intact.

Just wondering if anybody experienced that happening.

 

[CoopBoots]

There's a possibility that she ate just the eggshell post hatch; not to give you false hope, but I've had some very hidden babies scare me into thinking a tragedy had occurred. I have also had a tragedy occur before, but that hen went on to hatch her other egg in the same batch just fine. For whatever chicken reason, she rejected the first, and it may have been a very good reason (even if I couldn't stomach it and would have intervened if I'd been in time.) Have you checked her really carefully for a baby, just to be completely sure?

I'd observe her closely, if possible, and set up a brooder in case you need to snatch up some eggs/partially hatched chicks.

 

[Bluebelle7]

There's a possibility that she ate just the eggshell post hatch; not to give you false hope, but I've had some very hidden babies scare me into thinking a tragedy had occurred. I have also had a tragedy occur before, but that hen went on to hatch her other egg in the same batch just fine. For whatever chicken reason, she rejected the first, and it may have been a very good reason (even if I couldn't stomach it and would have intervened if I'd been in time.) Have you checked her really carefully for a baby, just to be completely sure?

I'd observe her closely, if possible, and set up a brooder in case you need to snatch up some eggs/partially hatched chicks.

Yes, I had a good look and the chick and shell are gone. I watched the hen all day, and nothing else was hatching, but I got an offer from lady nearby to bring the eggs to her broody hen, and that is what I did. I gave Paloma 4 plastic eggs, for time being. Now the question is, when the real eggs hatch, should I try to introduce them to her? Or leave them with the new momma? It feels nasty thing to do, but than again taking the chicks from the broody girl who actually hatched them is not nice either.

The annoying thing is, I actually bought incubator, which supposed to be here by now, and it is not.

 

[Bluebelle7]

Good news, the foster broody took the eggs and now we have 8 chicks! That is really amazing, out of 9 eggs flown from 750km away, and then moved to another hen,all 9 hatched

 

[CoopBoots]

Good news, the foster broody took the eggs and now we have 8 chicks! That is really amazing, out of 9 eggs flown from 750km away, and then moved to another hen,all 9 hatched


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That's awesome! A good broody is worth her weight in gold... So sorry the first didn't work out.