Our hen stopped sitting on the eggs after first chick came out this morning, what should I do?

[piXelsbite]

Hello.


Our hen covered the eggs for 21 days and today is hatch day. However, after the first chick came out, she moved to the other side of the nest with her chick and now the eggs are all cold and unattended. This is her first time so I get she might not know what to do.



Will they still hatch if she doesn't sit on them during the last day? We don't have a lamp to give them heat. I keep moving the hen back on the eggs but every time I come back she's just in the other corner again, away from the eggs.



The eggs do have chicks in them, I made a small gap in one egg's air chamber and the chick is alive and making sounds. So it's not that there was only that fist chick alive.



Any advice? Thank you.

 

[nimrah]

try to sit the hen on the eggs if she doesn't stay put, you may need to incubate them

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Smell the eggs, if they stink they could be rotten. If you candle them you should see movement in the air cell end.

 

[piXelsbite]

Smell the eggs, if they stink they could be rotten. If you candle them you should see movement in the air cell end.

There's 7 of them that are alive, but I'm worried they won't get out without the hen warming them up. I put them in the sun (with a towel on top) for heat but it's gonna set in about an hour and they still haven't hatched. They're alive and moving though. We don't have heating pads or lamps so I have no idea what to do for heat during the night

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Do you have any incandescent light bulbs?
Old style bulbs or night lights with bulbs?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

The hen might go back to the nest at night too. So see if you can get her to do that before you do all the work of rigging something up.

 

[piXelsbite]

The hen might go back to the nest at night too. So see if you can get her to do that before you do all the work of rigging something up.

Yes, I plan to try again once it's time for sleep. I set up a smaller nest and hopefully as she sits on the chick that hatched this morning she's also going to sit on the other eggs. Thank you!

 

[Katie386]

If you have a small cat kennel maybe you can lock her in. It’s possible She doesn’t want them and I’ve had a bad experience where the mother hen killed the babies so make sure you keep an eye on them!

 

[Birdie mom]

keep them in the sunlight. once its dark move the hen back onto the nest (chickens have terrible night vision so she probably wont move off the nest once its dark.)

 

[piXelsbite]

I've just brought the hen and chick back in the garage where she's been sitting on the eggs until now and she seems to have settled on top of the chick and unhatched eggs. I've changed the hay in case there was something in there she didn't like and I'll keep an eye on her tonight.

Thank you everyone, I'll post a (hopefully happy) update tomorrow!