Silkie hatched 4 and then hid the rest!

[sevenofus]

Hi - We are trying to figure out what is happening and if we should expect more chicks. We have a silkie who has been sitting on 12 eggs (not hers) and 3 of them hatched on Sunday and one more on Tuesday. This morning she completely rearranged her living space! She made a new nest (just inches away from the old one) for her and her 4 babies and all of the remaining eggs are pushed off to the side and buried/mixed up with the hay. Does she know that those eggs won't be hatching? Has motherhood driven her crazy already?!? Her and the 4 chicks are in a confined space with a heat lamp so even though she hasn't been sitting on the eggs since last night or this a.m., they shoud still be plenty warm. Any thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[squeakyballs]

I think... if I understand it correctly... that, after a few days, they have to make the choice of bringing the hatched chicks out to find food and water and abandoning the eggs, or letting the hatched chicks starve/dehydrate. Obviously, she'll pick the hatched chicks.

Even in a confined space, with the food and water right there, her instincts will kick in and she'll ditch the eggs.

I'm surprised she was able to cover 12 eggs. I think, if they can't cover them all, they continuously rotate the eggs out. So the ones she was incubating get pushed aside to get cold, while she warms up the others... Maybe that could be why so few hatched?