Please Help, Dead Chicks

[Gailann]

Hello, I have a hen that has hatched four healthy chicks, and two were dead new borns. One was lying out side of it's shell dead and the other three days later dead in it's broken shell. I checked out the last five eggs and they are warm and mom wants to keep them warm. I can see she wants to hatch them but can't understand why I keep finding them dead. Any ideas why? I'd apprciate any advice to what to do or even why this is happening.

 

[joletabey]

Gailann, you might want to move this to the proper section, as this is about coops- you will get more answers if you move it either to raising baby chicks or the illness section-
And I am SO sorry for you losses - that is always so heartbreaking- they are so little and so precious.

 

[speckledhen]

Since this is a hatching issue, I moved this here for you.

 

[chickendude]

Was there any physical harm to the chicks. This summer I had my first broody hen and let her hatch 4 eggs. Long story short she killed the first 2 that hatched. i was lucky to be home when the last 2 hatched, as they hatched I took them and put them in my brooder. They are now 5 weeks old and doing well.

 

[Gailann]

Sorry every one. I didn't realize that I posted wrong. I must have been in to much of a hurry to get some answers.
Thanks Speckledhen for correcting this. Also Overrun with chickens, now that I think of it. I went out to check out the hen and chicks after the first three were hatched and fine I noticed that my hen was pecking hard at an egg to help a chick hatch from it's egg. She was pecking so hard at the chick I took it from her and pealed the shell away. The chick was very small and weak. I put it under the hen and the next day the chick was fine. Now, this morning when I had found the second one it did look like she could have done the same thing and killed it for it was in its mangled shell and the chick was bloody. I do not have any thing but a heat lamp. Should I take away the rest of the eggs and let them hatch under the light and put the chicks immediately under the hen as soon as they hatch?

 

[chickendude]

No do not take the eggs from her. If you put them under a heat lamp the humidity level will be too low and dry the eggs out making it near impossible for the chick to hatch. You can take the chicks from your hen after they hatch if you need to. but definitely do not take her eggs before they hatch.

 

[Gailann]

Thanks Callemin, I checked the eggs this morning and not a crack yet. I'll keep an eye on the eggs and watch for eggs that are starting to crack and help if she starts to peck to hard at them. I just pray I'm there at the time I need to be before they die. By the way, as I'm talking here, I hear my four baby fenchs being fed in another room. They just left their nest yesterday and I'm really enjoying all the new commers in and out of my home. My husband laughed and said he is going to start calling me the bird lady.

 

[chickendude]