Ok, I need some help

fuzziecreatures

Songster
8 Years
May 2, 2011
586
17
133
Southwestern PA, Flock since 5/2011
I don't use an incubator, I normally use a broody hen. I have a mixed breed bantam hen who I started out with 9 eggs under her 3 weeks ago, 5 mixed breed and 4 black copper marans eggs. All 5 mixed breed eggs hatched a day or 2 early, 1 bcm egg didn't develop past week 1, 1 bcm egg died late term, 1 hatched last night but died. My hen left the other egg, I just got home from work and the egg was cold. I thought for sure it would be dead, I tried to give it back to her... she just walked away from it. So I candled the egg. Saw no movement at the air cell end at all, cracked open the air cell end a little bit, the chick moved!!!! I tried to give it to her again, she started pecking the egg and made the chick bleed a little!
What do I do now? She walked away from it again and the other chicks were kicking it all around?
 
Progress is....
Chick is wrapped up in a warm wet washcloth in an open ziplock bag on a heating pad with a digital thermometer between the bag and heating pad. Keeping temp around 99-101. I did chip away more shell so I could see where it's beak is, it needed a quarter turn and had already broken the membrane with the beak. I wet the membrane a little better with warm h2o and a qtip, I can see it breathing now vs just moving around. Gonna be a long night I think. If it hatches before I go to bed, do you think it would be ok to put under mom tonight after dark and the lights are out? Last chick hatched early yesterday am
 
Never mind, broody momma knew what she was doing. She died a little while ago, I was hoping she was just resting but she isn't breathing or moving at all. Tore a little bit of membrane across a small vessel, no bleeding. Tore across a larger vessel that should have bled, no bleeding.
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I'm so bummed, I've been waiting for a year for these eggs.
 
I bought them, I guess I'll try again next broody hen. It's getting kinda late in the year for me though. I have another hen that I already had given eggs to, hopefully another bantam will go broody. They went broody left and right last year it was ridiculous! This year, out of the 4 bantam hens 3 have gone broody and 1 would not stay where I put her. She would only sit in the nest box and all the other hens kept picking on her and stepping on her eggs.
 
Hens are weird like that. Thats crazy you had so many go broody! I only have one that ever goes broody and all the other hens end up laying eggs beside her to sit on. None of the other will sit.
 

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