Surprise, you are a mother!

[TheBirdBabe]

Hello!

Today I went out to check some windows in the coop & surprise.. I found a chick under one of my hens! She's in a nesting box & I've fixed it so the chick can't get out, however, there are other adult chickens that can get in. The others are very curious & I have 3 roosters in the pen.

My question is, should I move mama & baby to a safer location? She does have other eggs she's sitting on & I'm not sure if they're fertilized or not. Would moving her stress her out, or should I just keep a good eye on them? I would feel terrible moving just the chick & make her be all alone! ☹

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Weeg]

My question is, should I move mama & baby to a safer location? She does have other eggs she's sitting on & I'm not sure if they're fertilized or not. Would moving her stress her out, or should I just keep a good eye on them? I would feel terrible moving just the chick & make her be all alone! ☹

I think it will be fine. Keep an eye on everything, hens are usually pretty good at keeping their babies safe. I usually prefer to put up a baby gate around my hens while they're brooding, or move them at night. I usually keep them separate until he babies are bigger, but I've left them where they are as well with no issues.
If you see problems you can always put up a baby/pet gate around her. If you don't have one, moving her and babies at night to a separate are should be fine.

About the other eggs though. Did you remove eggs played under her by other hens while see was brooding? Other hens will play eggs underneath her, and you'll end up with a staggered hatch. That means that the eggs will hatch on different days, and the hen will abandon the nest before they all hatch. If you didn't remove eggs, how many others are under her? Do you have an incubator? You might need to mother those remaining eggs yourself if they're behind. Canceling them and posting photos here will allow us to tell you how far behind they are.
Congrats on your babies! Its so exciting to have young ones on the farm! Nice work momma!

 

[TheBirdBabe]

I think it will be fine. Keep an eye on everything, hens are usually pretty good at keeping their babies safe. I usually prefer to put up a baby gate around my hens while they're brooding, or move them at night. I usually keep them separate until he babies are bigger, but I've left them where they are as well with no issues.
If you see problems you can always put up a baby/pet gate around her. If you don't have one, moving her and babies at night to a separate are should be fine.

About the other eggs though. Did you remove eggs played under her by other hens while see was brooding? Other hens will play eggs underneath her, and you'll end up with a staggered hatch. That means that the eggs will hatch on different days, and the hen will abandon the nest before they all hatch. If you didn't remove eggs, how many others are under her? Do you have an incubator? You might need to mother those remaining eggs yourself if they're behind. Canceling them and posting photos here will allow us to tell you how far behind they are.
Congrats on your babies! Its so exciting to have young ones on the farm! Nice work momma!

I did notice that the original hen layed a few eggs over time & the current sitter layed as well. The original mama went for a bite to eat & came back to her babies stolen. lol
The new sitter has only been on for a few days, so I don't think she'll be going anywhere soon. She's very grumpy with me even opening the door!
I *think* there are about 6-7 others under her! My husband asked the same question. Would I be able to candle them at this point? Or should I leave them under her & just wait & see? It's pretty chilly outside & I'm worried about messing with her too much, stressing her out & her leaving.

 

[Huntmaster]

I did notice that the original hen layed a few eggs over time & the current sitter layed as well. The original mama went for a bite to eat & came back to her babies stolen. lol
The new sitter has only been on for a few days, so I don't think she'll be going anywhere soon. She's very grumpy with me even opening the door!
I *think* there are about 6-7 others under her! My husband asked the same question. Would I be able to candle them at this point? Or should I leave them under her & just wait & see? It's pretty chilly outside & I'm worried about messing with her too much, stressing her out & her leaving.

If she doesn't leave nest with baby in a day or so you will have to raise baby yourself if original mother doesn't claim it. It will need to go to food and water. And if she does leave with baby like OP stated you will have to hatch eggs yourself or dispose of them.

 

[Weeg]

Would I be able to candle them at this point? Or should I leave them under her & just wait & see? It's pretty chilly outside & I'm worried about messing with her too much, stressing her out & her leaving.

You can carefully candle them. If there are any with pips or cracks leave those.
You can wait and see as well. Though 6-7 eggs probably means you have a staggered hatch. I'd carefully candle them. If momma is vicious than you can wait until dark. That will make it easy to candle anyway, since you wont have to take them away from the nest. Plus, hens are pretty delirious at night, so she probably wont even notice.
Good luck! Tell us what you see.

 

[gimmie birdies]

My worry would be what container is the baby going to drink from, it should be different than adults waterers. I had one chick hop into the big water dish meant for adult hens and drown.

 

[gimmie birdies]

My surprise was, I had finished a New Years hatch and went to look at the eggs due on the 11th. I had accidently mixed this one with them.

 

[Weeg]

My worry would be what container is the baby going to drink from, it should be different than adults waterers. I had one chick hop into the big water dish meant for adult hens and drown.

Good point.
OP, if you are concerned about this and want to keep your current waterer in the area, than you can fill the water pan with small stones so the water isn't very deep. Chicks shouldn't' be able to hurt themselves to shadow water.

 

[TheBirdBabe]

My worry would be what container is the baby going to drink from, it should be different than adults waterers. I had one chick hop into the big water dish meant for adult hens and drown.

For now, the baby is fenced off from everyone but mama & has her own food & waterer. They're standard chick "utensils". 🍽

 

[TheBirdBabe]

You can carefully candle them. If there are any with pips or cracks leave those.
You can wait and see as well. Though 6-7 eggs probably means you have a staggered hatch. I'd carefully candle them. If momma is vicious than you can wait until dark. That will make it easy to candle anyway, since you wont have to take them away from the nest. Plus, hens are pretty delirious at night, so she probably wont even notice.
Good luck! Tell us what you see.

I only got a few from mama, didn't want to disturb the little one too much tonight. This is what I saw out of the 3 I observed:
1) The entire egg was dark but the end. There was a little "air bubble".
2) Half of the egg was dark, the other half had an "air bubble".
3) My phone did a terrible job capturing it, but there were visible veins!

I'll get back out there tomorrow when it warms up & I can get the baby out to eat & drink! ☺