Staggered hatch under broody hen

[Supermommy486]

Glad to see she is staying with it. I have done the same as you, put eggs from two different days under a broody with no problems but never a week apart. Cant wait to see pics of the chicks!!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Oh well, here it is on Sat night and none of the other eggs have even pipped, no sounds from them. It could have been that the eggs were duds, or that the hen didn't set on them enough. Although it seemed that she was spending most of her time on the nest each time I looked.

Tomorrow I'm going to give her a great treat and put her & her now week-old chicks in a pen with a nice dirt floor. She's going to be thrilled to have a dust bath and to scratch & bluck for her chickies. She's been setting long enough!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Well here's a happy turn of events! This morning I was taking the nest box out of the broody cage in order to put Fifi and her 2 hatched chicks into another pen when I noticed that at least 2 of the eggs were pipping! So I quickly put the box and the hen & chicks back and dimmed the lights. Either I counted the days wrong or these eggs needed an extra day or two to hatch. I just checked and there seem to be 2 new chicks that just emerged, I hope to see everyone doing fine tomorrow morning.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Monday morning and Fifi has 3 new chicks to show! The 4th egg is cold & unpipped. I put them in a dirt-floored pen so Mama can FInally get a dust bath & scratch for her chicks.

One of the new chicks may not make it, it looks like the last to hatch & it could benefit from more time just huddled under Mama's wings. I could take it from Mama, but it still might not make it, or if it does Mama won't take it back. I put Quick Chick in their water and cooked some scrambled egg for them all. Once Mama finished her dust bath I snuggled all the new chicks under her breast and left the egg & water nearby. We will keep checking on them during the day, giving the littlest the best chances to survive...

 

[Wolftalk]

I finished the incubation for 3 days in a cardboard box with a desk lamp on them and a heating pad under them. I put a sponge near them for humididty. All 3 eggs hatched. hope that helped good luck!

 

[williamsl77]

Fun story! So glad it worked out! Hope the last one does ok, too. 8)

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I really wanted the hen to hatch the chicks herself so that she would have the care of them while they're little. It's so very handy to have a bird do the work for you!

Earlier today I went out to check on Fifi & her family and found the littlest chick curled up, still & cold, in the shade of the pen. Mom had gotten up to move and the chick was left behind.

But when I picked it up it was still breathing! So I tucked it in my bra for a while -- ironically, while I was in the process of processing 4 roosters -- and it warmed up and perked up, started peeping & wriggling around.

So I put it back with Mama, and this evening we made sure it was nicely tucked in under her feathers for warmth. We'll check in on it before we go to sleep, and we're praying that it will be stronger tomorrow morning.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Sadly, that littlest chicky didn't make it, found it dead & cold beside the hen yesterday morning. I couldn't say for certain, but perhaps it could have survived if it had been part of the first batch to hatch and had more time to warm & strengthen under the hen before she got up to tend to the other chicks. It was the last to hatch from the second batch, and Mama was rarin' to get off that nest. But then again, it may just have not had enough of the Right Stuff to go on anyway.

I don't think I would ever try to do this again, stagger a hatch with so much time between additions. The only way it could work is if you take the first chicks away from the hen and be prepared to raise them in a brooder. You could *try* to return them to the Mama hen after the last chicks hatch, but not all hens will accept new chicks, especially week-old ones. Often it's the chicks that don't make it easy for the hen, they don't get accustomed to following her calls and act like strangers to the hen.

If I were raising rare breeds or knew I had buyers who would pay a good price for each of these chicks then I would take that time/trouble to brooder-raise the chicks I hatch. Otherwise, I prefer having a hen to tend to the chicks, they do such an excellent job and it frees me for other work.

Fifi is doing a great job with her 4 remaining chicks, it's interesting to see the difference in size with chicks just one week apart. Yes, I plan to get photos to post really soon...

 

[Sunny Side Up]

All that hard work, waiting, & effort seem well worth it now. I took Fifi & her 4 chicks to the Fair today, installed them in a secured floor pen there. They all seem completely unfazed by their surroundings, and are delighting all the visitors. They love watching this hen tend to her babes, scratching in the shavings and clucking when she finds a goody for them, setting on the floor and letting them climb on her back and snuggle under her feathers. Tomorrow I'm going to dig a shallow hole and fill it with sand so they can dust bathe.