Hi, I’m new to this forum and have a question? My chicken went broody and laid 2 eggs, 2 days apart to sit on. 4 days later I put 4 more under her from a friend. She has been doing a great job keeping them all warm and safe. At this stage she was still in the coop she shares with another hen and a rooster. On the morning of the 21st day one little chic hatched. This is where it all started to go wrong. My friend’s rooster attacked her hens chics so I decided to move my broody hen into another coop with a run that I had ready. Also the other chicken kept sitting on her to lay eggs which the broody hen would break as she had enough to sit on already. I moved my broody hen, her chic and the 4 remaining eggs to the other coop, which I should mention that the other chicken and rooster cannot access. The next morning I discovered the chic out of the nesting box, dead. Broody chicken still happily sitting on 4 eggs due to hatch any day. That afternoon she wanted out for some food, water and dust bath. I checked half an hour later and as there was no sign of her in the pen I mistakenly assumed she was back on her eggs, my mistake, I should have checked. When do the afternoon feeds for all my animals I found that broody hen had gone back to the first nesting box in the coop she shared with the other 2 birds and eggs were left sitting on their own for 4 to 5 hours. It was a warm day around 26C bad the eggs were Slightly cold to the touch but not Frozen, less than room temp. I immediately put the eggs under broody hen and left them all together in the first coop with the other hen and rooster. My questions are Do the eggs still have a chance of hatching, or did the lack of warmth kill them? Are they OK to be left in same coop as rooster and other hen, or should I move them all back? I really just want to leave them be but not sure if this is the best thing to do. Also did the broody hen throw the first hatched chic out of the nest because she new the other 4 still had a few more days before hatching? Thanks for reading my very long post. Oh I should mention we have a good sized fenced off area for the chickens with 2 coops inside this area. 1 coop has a run and can be completely closed off from the others.
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