Newly Hatched Chicks out of Nest, Mama abandons eggs

[Dawnmeridian]

My hens went broody in the normal nesting/egg laying boxes, which are about 2.5 feet above the ground. Trouble is after the first few chicks hatch, they get out of the boxes and end up on the straw covered ground and mama abandons her eggs to go stay with them. I tried stapling a cardboard "rail" about 3 inches high on the front of the box to keep babies in but allow mama to come and go for food and water but the babies still got out. How do I keep this from happening. I'm ending up with broods of 2-5 instead of the 15 eggs mama was laying on. One hen is going back and forth between two babies on the ground and her nest, but neither is being 100% successful. ??

 

[Granny Hatchet]

setting the eggs all at the same time is helpful but I pull the chicks as they hatch and put them in a brooder. When they are all hatched she will take them back I am told. I just raise them myself .

 

[Granny Hatchet]

welcome to BYC

 

[Dawnclucks22]

Hens are more likely to "finish" broodiness after 3 weeks since any healthy eggs will be hatched by then. I think it's unlikely she'll go back to brood on them. You mentioned you had other broodies though; are any of them still? When my bantam goes broody she'll sit on any eggs I give her.

 

[SuperMell]

We had a staggered hatch about 36 hours from being surprised with an early hatcher all fluffy & dry on a Friday morning to the last chick piping Saturday afternoon. As soon as chicks were dry & starting to peak out from under mama I took them & put them in a brooder box for the day. Gave the chicks back to mama for the night & then took the chicks from her again the next morning until hatching was done & the last chick was dry. Daytime temps here are in the mid to high 90s so I wasn't worried if the later hatched chicks stayed behind in the nest for a bit while mama was out with the first hatched. They are 11 & 12 days old now & doing great.

 

[SuperMell]

Also, I hadn't moved our broody's nest box to the ground yet before the first chick hatched so I moved her after we put the chicks in the brooder.

 

[lazy gardener]

Set all the eggs at the same time. Mark those eggs so that if any hens sneak extra eggs into the nest, those new ones can be removed. That should go a long ways toward preventing this. I think that instead of removing chicks to a brooder until the last egg hatches, I'd opt to take any abandoned eggs and finish them off in an incubator. If I had a broody, I'd fire up an incubator towards the end of the incubation period so any problem egglets could be helped out.