Yesterday, day 22 of my broody sitting on her eggs, she hatched one of her eggs! I cute little splash Andulusian chick. I learned too late that I should have moved her to a different nest area so I had to leave her in the hen house in a nest box to finish this hatch. There are four more eggs that could hatch. My question: she's in a nest box that's almost three feet off the floor and I'm very concerned about the chick falling out and either getting hurt from the fall or pecked by the other chickens in the coop. I have a rabbit hutch all ready to move her to but don't know if I should move her, the chick and the other eggs today or wait another day or two to see if she hatches anymore and then just move her and any chicks? What do I do? When do I move her?
I would move them ASAP. the ltle one will ned easy access to food and water. Wear gloves, as the mom will probably peck you- and get someone to help. One to hold mom, and one to move eggs and chick.
Or, you could close her and the chicks off somehow.I don't know how your nests are set up. The chick will be fine for a couple of days and probably won't even come out from under Mom. Congrats.
My suggestion is wait until night. The move will be less traumatic and the other guys might be hatched by then. When you move her she might leave the nest and any unhatched eggs will have to dealt with. That is what happened to me. If you don't move her you will have to keep a close eye on them. Is there any way you can move the entire nest box to ground level. You can also but a barrier on the box to keep the little guys in. Cardboard stapled to the nest box works. As gina said the chicks will be OK for a couple of days. The day old chicks you get from a hatchery are probably 3 days old when you get them.
Our chicks stayed under mum for the first few days, so you might be okay to wait a couple more days...?
The nestbox cannot be moved, oh it's really only just over two feet off the ground (my bad - didn't go out and look, couldn't remember), not three. Still I don't want the little peep falling out. I actually did put 1" chicken wire over the nestbox yesterday because I was gone all day and thus couldn't keep an eye on things. I took it off today. I don't know if I should put it back on - that means that my hen cannot get out either. Will she leave the nest for food/water when her babies are hatching? I can move her tonight and I think that I will do that just to make sure I don't lose this one chick that we do have.
I've seen little peeps go through 1" chicken wire. I don't watch my birds 24/7 so I don't know if she will leave while they are hatching. I did watch one of the hens for part of the hatch and she would periodically stand up a little and look under her, cluck softly, and move stuff around.