Mother hen throwing babies out :(

[Therliana]

I agree Folly's Place, We didn't realise she had that many under her until too late. We have 5 girls, Bella is the oldest, 3 Polish chickens about 8 months old and an araucana that is 6 months old. None of them had been laying eggs at all over winter, and even in summer they're prone to hiding them around the yard. Bella will sit on absolutely anything and we had noticed her sitting on 3 eggs early on and decided to let her do her thing, we put food and water in with her and feed her special treats but she never comes off the nest and my poor partner's hands are covered in sores from trying to move her.

What we didn't realise was happening until she got caught red handed was the other chickens have been laying eggs and Bella has been getting out of her nest going to the other nesting boxes and using her beak to "wheel" them home to her nest, There's a gap between the dividers at the front of the boxes and she very cunningly gets them to there and then uses her beak to navigate the eggs up and over the little rise to get them to her nest. Needless to say that has all been re-structured now too.

We isolated her, marked the eggs that were under her, candled them and got rid of unfertilised eggs. She got out yesterday while we were cleaning so we took the opportunity to candle them again which is when we heard chirping. Last night she had 3 new eggs she'd wheeled over to her cage so we took them away from her.

Now that we know her antics we wont fall for the same mistake twice, her jig is up lol

 

[Folly's place]

Hens can be tricky! Mary

 

[Therliana]

No easy way to fix your problem===you got some good suggestions from the others. Just for info----hatching does not have to be complicated like this----I am more than willing to share info on your future hatches----once you get this time past----if you are interested--so they go smooth or should with your future hatches. Good Luck

Her first hatch went perfectly, we didn't have any of these issues and we just let nature take it's course. Having said that the first time there was only the 2 hens, Bella and Samantha. We introduced the 3 Polish Hens in just after Bella had the 4 babies as they were rescue chickens. So we went from a flock of 4 to a flock of 11 within a week.

Her first hatch she sat on 2 of her own eggs and 2 of Samantha's and they both shared the nesting box, this time however there's been 5 girls laying and she's gone and hoarded the whole lot. This is only our 2nd time dealing with chickens hatching eggs, we're complete newbies to this side of chickens and trust me we're learning some very valuable lessons as well as seeing a completely different side to our darling Bella too.

We live in town where we're technically not allowed to have any more then 9 chickens and absolutely no roosters, so we've given our boys to a friend who is crazier then most for chickens and lives on 10 acres, so it's better for the boys to have all that room and better for the girls to have some peace too and we visit fairly often so can still see them which is a nice added bonus.

 

[Therliana]

Hens can be tricky! Mary

Indeed !!! I certainly would never have expected that if we had not seen it ourselves. She's a great Mum but next time she goes Broody we're going to tackle breaking her but I don't think it will be easy, failing that we might buy 3 or 4 fertile eggs for her to raise.

 

[jvls1942]

Hindsight is 20/20
you have a great hen there, but like others have said, too many eggs, and added eggs to the clutch are the problem.
she might not be kicking the chicks out. sometimes they leave the nest, and she can't call them back in. and she is not about to get up and go after them as long as she is sitting on eggs.

don't make big plans on giving her the already hatched chicks to raise with the newly hatched ones later on.
she might accept them, but they usually are not smart enough to stay with her.

in the future, when you find a cold live chick, just put it someplace warm. you do not have to do CPR . it does little good.


....jiminwisc.....

 

[Folly's place]

A warm hair dryer, carefully used, can warm and dry a wet cold chick. CAREFULLY USED! Then it can go back to mom. Mary

 

[PD-Riverman]

she's gone and hoarded the whole lot. This is only our 2nd time dealing with chickens hatching eggs, we're complete newbies to this side of chickens and trust me we're learning some very valuable lessons

What I an saying---after you get through this time---don't let her hoard all the eggs----you control, mark what eggs she needs under her and remove any others daily. Wouldn't you be happy if she had 12 eggs under her and all 12 hatched in the same day/24hrs? That will happen if You Control the eggs under her.

 

[Therliana]

Thanks jvls1942, She is indeed a great Mum, but she's causing a few headaches right now that's for sure. As for the little one found outside of Mum, we're going to just keep a much, much closer eye on her. I was going to check to see if the baby had hatched first thing this morning but had to get my son to school and if there was a new chick there didn't want to put straight into the brooder and not keep an eye on it incase the other's picked on it, so figured I'd leave Mum to do her thing then check when I got back so I could dedicate my time to any new chick that had hatched, pretty dirty on myself for that choice. We've been pretty vigilant on checking on not only the eggs but Mum's health as well but we'll definitely up the times we check from here on out.

As for making big plans to give her back her babies, you must of read my mind, that was exactly what I was hoping to do. Ultimately I'd prefer to hand them back to Mum and let them be raised naturally, but at the end of the day it's not a big deal if she doesn't. When she first started hatching we went and bought heat lamps, thermometer etc and set up a brooder in our lounge room, so if need be we'll just keep raising them and go from there.

I don't think this little one was alive when I got to it, I sat with it under the heat lamp for nearly 2 hours "thinking" I'd seen movement but because it's so tiny everytime I massaged it, it moved and I just wasn't prepared to give up unless there was a chance there was movement. I'll prepare a little emergency hospital now though incase I do come across another one like this that is alive, I'll at least be prepared instantly for it. And I'll go fiddle with the setting on my hair dryer has Folly's Place has suggested.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone for their advice, I'm starting to feel a little more confident in what might happen and what to do if it does, so thank you so very much xx

 

[Therliana]

What I an saying---after you get through this time---don't let her hoard all the eggs----you control, mark what eggs she needs under her and remove any others daily. Wouldn't you be happy if she had 12 eggs under her and all 12 hatched in the same day/24hrs? That will happen if You Control the eggs under her.

I absolutely couldn't agree with you more PD-Riverman, This hatch compared to her first hatch has been an absolute nightmare and extremely stressful and heartbreaking at the same time, definitely not going through this again that's for sure!!!

Once we realised the extent of her hoarding though our primary focus became just how to save the chickens as best we could. As for making sure it never happens again we're on top of that already

 

[PD-Riverman]

As for making sure it never happens again we're on top of that already

Great. I always Collect eggs from every nest EVERY Day---no matter if a hen happens to be on that nest. That way there is No hoarding---if its a hen that is starting to "set"---I decide if I am going to set her or break her. If set---I collect the eggs she will be setting on-----not allow them to build up under her. If I am collecting her some eggs, because of wanting them to hatch as close to the same time as possible----I will not even use a egg from under a starting broody that might have gotten layed that morning and she has been setting on it all day(it would probably hatch hours earlier) ---I collect the "setting" eggs from other fresh layed nest. Good Luck