Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[TeaChick]

Day 18 is tomorrow, what do I do?!? This is her second brood, gross! I haven't had to deal with this should I take it out?

I'm no expert; I've never had a broody hen, etc. But I'm inclined to let nature take its course. If she starts eating it, then I would start worrying, but meanwhile, I would just watch and wait. Sorry, I don't think I'm being much help.
I hope someone else gives you more experienced advice!!!

My first chicken is broody.... Just ordered 6eggs for her! She is a buckeye, hoping to be mama to BLRW +plus maybe a few of my own crosses!

Yay!!!

 

[TeaChick]

Day 18 is tomorrow, what do I do?!? This is her second brood, gross! I haven't had to deal with this should I take it out?

I have no experience at all!!! But I would wait and watch as long as she doesn't eat it.
Otherwise, IDK. Sorry, I wish I could be more help.

My first chicken is broody.... Just ordered 6eggs for her! She is a buckeye, hoping to be mama to BLRW +plus maybe a few of my own crosses!

 

[Viollettt]

Day 18 is tomorrow, what do I do?!? This is her second brood, gross! I haven't had to deal with this should I take it out?

I can't see the picture that well but if that is a dead chick I would just take it out of there. If it is alive I might even take it out of there. I don't usually interfere but it looks like there was a problem. Very sorry you are having to deal with this.

 

[TeaChick]

I can't see the picture that well but if that is a dead chick I would just take it out of there. If it is alive I might even take it out of there. I don't usually interfere but it looks like there was a problem. Very sorry you are having to deal with this.

Click on the pic; you'll be able to see it almost as large as your screen.

 

[Gen9]

I think she ate it. I went back to check on her before there were any replies to my post, it was gone... Oh well. I think she'll be ok. I just gave her a hard boiled egg too, so it wasn't like she was starving or anything. I think something was wrong with it. Her first hatch was very clean, no shells were left over, she's a great mama too. I'm not too worried about it unless she does it to all of them.
ETA: Thanks for the responses! I'm not sad about it, I have enough chickens, I just let her go broody whenever she wants. I'm actually hatching for a friend.
Tip on the dropped eggs; if the crack hasn't punctured the outer membrane you can melt candle wax over the crack, it will hatch fine (then again, I didn't do this with a broody, with a $16 homemade incubator)

 

[TeaChick]

I think she ate it. I went back to check on her before there were any replies to my post, it was gone... Oh well. I think she'll be ok. I just gave her a hard boiled egg too, so it wasn't like she was starving or anything. I think something was wrong with it. Her first hatch was very clean, no shells were left over, she's a great mama too. I'm not too worried about it unless she does it to all of them.
ETA: Thanks for the responses! I'm not sad about it, I have enough chickens, I just let her go broody whenever she wants. I'm actually hatching for a friend.
Tip on the dropped eggs; if the crack hasn't punctured the outer membrane you can melt candle wax over the crack, it will hatch fine (then again, I didn't do this with a broody, with a $16 homemade incubator)

Good, I'm glad you're not sad. Hatching for a friend is nice!!
Yeah, it sounds like something was probably wrong with it. Survival of the fittest, I guess.

 

[Math]

I am not a good Candler..... I did like you did on the first hatch and tried to see veins early on and was frustrated (thank goodness for patient broodies!)  Now I only candle around day 10 and look for definitive sign of growth (dark on one end, air cell on the other), by that time clear eggs can be pulled and any who are questionable I mark and recheck about day 14 and pull if no change.  Only reason I do this much is to avoid rotten eggs breaking in the nest and contaminating others.  If a broody pushes out an egg I would treat it with extreme suspicion, candle it if you want, but chances are she shoved it out because she felt there was a problem.

My Silver Laced Wyandotte pushed blue Easter Egger eggs from underneath her several times. I placed them back under. And finally decided to put them way back so it would not be easy for her to push them out. They hatched late, but they did hatch.

 

[kmollyhughes]

I would watch her really closely. She might be a homicidal hen. I had a Marans kill babies as they hatched last month. She sat great...then went crazy. Be careful, some hens just aren't made to be mothers.

 

[Peep-Chicken]

Do check on her, find what some signs of a broody sitting are and make sure that she's really sitting and there's nothing wrong with her.  (It sounds mostly like she's probably sitting, but I would want to make sure, especially with a production RIR.)

She's going on and off. She sits one day, doesn't the next. Yesterday she was sitting, today she is walking around.

 

[Gen9]

I would watch her really closely. She might be a homicidal hen. I had a Marans kill babies as they hatched last month. She sat great...then went crazy. Be careful, some hens just aren't made to be mothers.

I did have her in a different location for her first brood; in the garage. There is simply no room & now that the hubs brews his own beer, chickens in the garage is not an option. She's in the coop, separated by hardware cloth of course. She'll have her own little run with her chicks for a couple weeks, then it's off to free roam with the others. A few of my old hens (never dealt with chicks before) actually did well with her first brood! They helped find food for the babies, it was too cute! I can't say the same for her 2 marans sisters, however, she did not let them near her babies at all! I agree with you there. Not sure if its the breed (since she's a marans herself) but she did not trust her sisters at all. & she did not trust one of my older EEs... I think the flock is mich more dynamic than I ever thought to believe... I've been checking on her a lot today, she's still sitting on them, just afraid to bother her anymore. The chick in the picture does look malpositioned. I wonder how they just seem to know something's not right. She must sense movement in the shell, maybe it wasn't active enough...