Not Sure If Egg Hatched

[cmitchell]

I'm definately going to leave her alone till this coming weekend, maybe longer. When I candled the eggs a week ago I saw a staggered range of developement. From floating embryos whose eyes would press up against the shell, seeming to look back at me..to shadow so dark I could hardly see light around the chick.

This is Miss Marple first time brooding..so far she has been very protective of her clutch, more so now that there is a chick hatched. Do you think she will stay on the nest until all that are going to hatch do so? Will she know if there are still chicks to hatch or will she abandon the nest if there is a pause in hatching time?

This is my first experience with hatching eggs so I have a lot to learn!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are a lot of different possible ways that a chick could just disappear that has nothing to do with the hen eating it. A rat or snake could take it out from under Mama at night. Another hen might take it. Maybe it died, Mama threw it out of the nest and something got the carcass. They are living animals and you never know what is going to happen. Sometimes chicks just disappear and you never know what happened. That is unsettling but that is dealing with living animals.

What I expect her to do is to stay on the nest until the chicks that have hatched get hungry and start peeping in a way that she knows it is time to find them something to eat or drink. The unhatched chicks will peep in the shells and you will sometimes see the hen and chicks talking to each other. If she does not hear any chicks ion the unhatched eggs, she may take them off the nest early. She will choose the already hatched chicks over the not yet hatched chicks if she has to make a choice.

With your reported different stages of development, it sounds like you did not start all the eggs at the same time. If that is the case, expect her to abandon the unhatched eggs.

 

[cmitchell]

She started getting broody in the coop with the other hens. It was a few days before we decided to take her out of the coop and put her in a dog crate to hatch the eggs. She had 10 eggs under her when we moved her. This being our first time w/broody and eggs I now believe some of the other hens jumped in her box and laid their eggs on different days. Our bad!

How do we avoid that next time she or another hen gets broody?

Sorry, still a lot to learn!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mark the eggs you want her to hatch. I use a sharpie. Then check under her every day and remove any unmarked eggs. They are still good to eat.

 

[cmitchell]

I was looking in the dog crate where Miss Marple is setting on her eggs, yesterday a chick hatched, today a second chick hatched..and I saw another egg that had pipped & starting to zip! I'm sooo excited! Can't wait till she brings her chicks out to let us see what they look like..we only get glimpses every now and then.