Should I move them tonight?

[BarnyardChaos]

Should I move my 3 broody hens and all their eggs into floor-level 'brooders' tonight? Hatch day is tomorrow! I've been working long hours for the last several days, so I haven't even had a chance to check their progress - and I'm afraid to bother the mommas and their eggs any more than absolutely necessary, especially right before hatch! They're in nesting 'buckets' on a shelf system, and I'm worried it's too small once the eggs hatch. Buckets are those large drywall mud buckets, about 4-gallons, laid on their sides, with cut-outs in the lids. Couple inches of mini-flake wood chips in the bottoms (side). So maybe 1 square foot inside. My big momma Australorps completely fill those buckets when they fluff up. I have prepared a brooding area inside the coop to move them to after hatch, but I'm fighting temptation to move them tonight. My set-up for them is a camper bath/shower stall laid on its back, and subdivided into three areas with movable dividers. Each space is about 20" wide and 42" deep. I have screens separating the spaces and a new, larger nesting bucket (5-gal) in each space. Secure cover of screen across the top of all three. My plan is to move mommas and their chicks into each brooder space for the first several days or a week, until I'm sure all eggs have hatched and mommas haven't abandoned their babies. (I have heat lamps ready to go in case that happens.) I'm sure the eggs are at different stages, and one group may be a week or more behind the others before hatching. To complicate things, my dear hubby in his efforts to 'help', mixed up some of the earlier-laid eggs with those laid 5-6 days later. So I'm WORRIED about leaving mommas and chicks and eggs all on their high shelf setup and WITH all the other birds in the coop until all the eggs hatch! How do I know when they're done hatching? Is it safe to move them once the first few hatch? Or..... since the brooders are enclosed and separated from the rest of the flock, should I risk moving them tonight while it's dark? Is it risky to move or handle the eggs this close to hatch? Can I switch hatched chicks with eggs still waiting, under their mommas, to put the later eggs all under the one hen that started setting later? Or LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE? What to do?!?!?!?!?!

 

[GoatDragonFarms]

step 1: BREATHE!

Ok, now. Hatch day is tomorrow and your hens are elevated? Move them now, tonight. Those babies can fall, and they're not built for it.
Candle the eggs that may be mixed up. You might be able to see a difference in the eggs the hubs moved, but if you're looking at day 20 vs day 15, the eggs are all going to be dark inside.
Still breathing?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

step 1: BREATHE!

Ok, now. Hatch day is tomorrow and your hens are elevated? Move them now, tonight. Those babies can fall, and they're not built for it.
Candle the eggs that may be mixed up. You might be able to see a difference in the eggs the hubs moved, but if you're looking at day 20 vs day 15, the eggs are all going to be dark inside.
Still breathing?

So it won't hurt the chicks to handle and move the eggs tonight? I've read a few threads on incubating eggs, that warn about lockdown and not turning eggs - but does this not apply when it's a broody hen doing the work?

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

I wouldn’t move them this close to hatch. I would wait until after they hatch. Place extra bedding beneath the nest buckets for cushion should any adventurous chicks decide to venture too far. I’ve had chicks fall out of nest boxes and they weren’t hurt. They are built to survive it. Give mamas a chance to finish their hatching duties then make the move.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Well, allright. One vote yes, one vote no. So I guess it's up to me. I decided to take the risk. The thought of chicks falling 3' or 4' to the floor - to be pecked to death by 46 other hens in the coop before their mommas could protect them - was too much for me to imagine. So I candled the eggs one last time (22 fully dark except the air sac, with one external pip!!! 7 more less developed or questionable, and 6 completely clear or duds). I moved 11 eggs first, then carefully moved one momma into her new nest. She balked a little, and I had to push her back inside twice before she settled down. Then I left the flashlight on by mistake, and she tried to fly out of the brooder. I put her back again, and turned off the light. She stayed put. I moved the next 11 into brooder bucket #2, and their momma, with no trouble. The last 7 less developed or questionable eggs went into brooder bucket #3, with a third momma, who also settled right down. I covered the brooder pen with a screen door, weighed it down, turned off the light, and hoped for the best. I did not take the time to give them food and water yet - I wanted to get it as dark and quiet in there as quickly as possible. I'll feed and water first thing in the morning, and keeping my fingers crossed the girls are still on their nests. Hope I did the right thing.

 

[Rakaiachick]

What a mission. I'm sure you have chosen the right thing. Good luck

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

You know your chickens better than anyone else. I hope all goes well and look forward to the baby pics!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

morning update: All is well! All three mommas are contentedly sitting their eggs - whew! I placed food and water, now just the waiting game. Thanks all for your support. I'll post pics when I have some.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Update - pic heavy! Moving the eggs and their mommas worked VERY WELL. I know it's been a couple of months since I started this thread, so I apologize for the late update. I've had hens going broody right and left since this started, and if I do say so myself, I'm doing pretty darn good as a chicken handler!!! And I've learned a LOT from my girls.
First 3 clutches moved at the same time, hatched over a 10-day period:
Momma #1 hatched 4 of 11 eggs.
Momma #2 hatched 5 of 11 eggs.
Momma #3 hatched 1 of 7 eggs.
About a week after the last hatch, I moved all 10 chicks and one Momma (#2) into a separate shed with attached run. She took them all quite happily. I turned the other two Mommas into the yard with the rest of the flock, feeling awful to take them away from their babies..... but their response was immediate: RELIEF. They raced to the dust baths and rejoined the flock as though nothing had happened. Showed zero interest in what was going on in the brooder. Shocker!

Next..... another broody hen in the coop, this time one of my Barred Plymouth Rocks. Very insistent. She had 3 eggs on day one, and 2 more on day two. So I rounded up 7 more just-laid eggs from other buckets, and gave them all to her, AND moved her to one of the now-empty brooder pens. She laid one more egg, then stopped. Of 13 eggs, she successfully hatched 11 chicks! ELEVEN! Huge success! While Momma #4 was hatching chicks in the brooder, Momma #2 had abandoned her now 5-week old chicks in the separate shed and run, and rejoined the flock. Timing perfect. So I moved Momma #4 and her 11 babies to the shed and run. She took control immediately, bossed the 10 older chicks into a corner, and settled in quite happily. The older chicks generally steer clear of her, but they have all found their rhythm and are co-habitating in the shed and run quite happily. They sleep in two separate piles, barely one foot apart. So all is well.

Meanwhile....... back in the coop..... Hubby let a broody Americauna hen set. By the time I discovered what was going on, she had 17 eggs!!!!!!! Lord only knows what stages. Two more broody hens next to her nest, one Rhode Island Red, and one of the first three Black Australorp Mommas for another round (no idea which one!) OMG. Three more broodys, various stages, here we go again. By the time I had a chance to candle them, it was near day 21 or so. I candled, separated according to approximate stages of development, and moved all eggs and Mommas to the 3-part brooder pen, just like I did the first time. Momma #5 (Americauna) got 9 fully-developed eggs. (One chick had already hatched, but died.) Momma #6 (RIR) got 9 eggs about half-developed. Momma #7 (Australorp) got the remaining 11 eggs, either questionable or non-fertilized.

So here we are.....
Americauna Momma #5 hatched 3 of her 9 eggs. She abandoned the other 6 after two days, probably dead.
RIR Momma #6 is on watch for hatching any day now.
Australorp Momma #7 is just happily sitting and waiting. We have a week or more to go, yet.
I expect to have to do the same thing with these three; Give all babies to one momma, and turn the other two back into the flock. In our setup, it's a matter of space available and managing security.

Enjoy the pics! I don't have any pics yet of the current 2 broodys and new momma Americauna, honestly, I'm too lazy to go take one at the moment. But you get the idea......