New Hatch from Momma Hen- Need advice

[BlessedChaosHomestead]

Hey so our broody hen became a momma today. She hatched our very first chick on the farm.

Question: She has one duck egg, that's close to hatching day now. Will she continue to sit on it till hatch time?

If we remove the chick & place it w our ones in the inside tote brooder (almost a week old), will she continue to sit on the rest of the eggs? (She only had 3 chicken eggs & 1 duck. The duck is the only fertile one left.)

We are torn on removing the chick because the brooder she has is small & within a week or so, she will be wanting to move around with it, right?? I dont want the rest of the flock harming it. (We have adults, 9wk olds and 6wk olds out there.)

Help! lol

 

[mcdze]

id say, if i can stand to lose it leave it with momma .. tractor supply is probably still open if you need an incubator for the duck egg lol ..

 

[BlessedChaosHomestead]

id say, if i can stand to lose it leave it with momma .. tractor supply is probably still open if you need an incubator for the duck egg lol ..

Lose it? lol No we don't want to lose it.

So far she is sitting fine on them all still. Hopefully the duckling will hatch soon.

 

[CuriousAmateur]

Would say it depends. She can only sit on the eggs for so long before her chick needs food and water. Chicks can survive up to 3 days without food after hatching due to the yolk it absorbed in the egg.

Putting a newly born chick with a batch of week olds is a bit risky. Could easily get bullied since the other chicks haven't imprinted on it and kill it.

If you have an incubator at hand, would get it prepared. Our hen did something similar, 3 chicks hatched and she was off the eggs. There were 4 more that was a few days off hatching and only 1 made it out via incubator.