Stay Put or Move to Incubator

[RowanTheRed]

This is a bit of a long winded story but please stick with me...

I have a 10 month old English Orpington pullet that is about that went broody over 3 weeks ago. Despite constant attempts to break her, she remained adamant that she was going to sit until she had babies.

We finally relented and went to get her a few eggs that were close to hatching from a local breeder (ours are fertile but I didn't want her to sit for another 3 weeks). While picking up 3 BCM eggs that were "due to hatch in 3 days", the breeder gave us a fresh hatched BCM chick for free. This baby was going to be dispatched due to webbed toes and my other half is so tender hearted he said we would take it. That was Saturday and the broody hen has taken to both the chick and the eggs well.
However the chicks in the eggs have just now internally pipped. I am not certain if she has chosen now to quit brooding and take care of the baby that is already here or if she is getting nervous about the chirping she is hearing from the eggs. I have caught her up off the eggs twice today. Once was the baby chick was out of the nest and she was guarding it from the other flock members. But the other time she was walking around the nest box and showing the baby how to eat and drink. I have gotten her back on the eggs. But I am concerned that she is going to abandon them or accidently crush them. I have an incubator that I could move the eggs to if need be.

Should I leave the eggs be and hope that she settles down and finishes the job or take over from here?

 

[Rose Quartz]

This is a bit of a long winded story but please stick with me...

I have a 10 month old English Orpington pullet that is about that went broody over 3 weeks ago. Despite constant attempts to break her, she remained adamant that she was going to sit until she had babies.

We finally relented and went to get her a few eggs that were close to hatching from a local breeder (ours are fertile but I didn't want her to sit for another 3 weeks). While picking up 3 BCM eggs that were "due to hatch in 3 days", the breeder gave us a fresh hatched BCM chick for free. This baby was going to be dispatched due to webbed toes and my other half is so tender hearted he said we would take it. That was Saturday and the broody hen has taken to both the chick and the eggs well.
However the chicks in the eggs have just now internally pipped. I am not certain if she has chosen now to quit brooding and take care of the baby that is already here or if she is getting nervous about the chirping she is hearing from the eggs. I have caught her up off the eggs twice today. Once was the baby chick was out of the nest and she was guarding it from the other flock members. But the other time she was walking around the nest box and showing the baby how to eat and drink. I have gotten her back on the eggs. But I am concerned that she is going to abandon them or accidently crush them. I have an incubator that I could move the eggs to if need be.

Should I leave the eggs be and hope that she settles down and finishes the job or take over from here?

Personally I would move them to an incubator and try to sneak them under her at night right after they hatch. (but I've never hatched with a broody before but my sister has and has lost a lot of perfectly hatch-able chicks just because the momma stopped sitting) It's been long enough that she needs to take care of the chick she has, and give up on the eggs.

 

[RowanTheRed]

The moma hen settled down after all and hatched it 2 or the 3 chicks without issue.

The third chick died in the shell. I heard it chirping yesterday, but never progressed after that. No more chirping this morning and no movement whatsoever with a float test. I did an eggtopsy and it never finished absorbing the yolk PLUS it had a malformed right foot. So it was probably for the best.